Snake Hunt
by Maxwell05DScythe
Summary: Raven's mind is under attack, and Starfire and Beast Boy must fight to help free it with the aid of a new ally and a few faces two members of the Titans met years ago; faces identical to that of the person they are helping. Chapter 21 up: Rage.
1. An End to Peaceful Days

_**Summary:** Raven has become temperamental over the past few weeks in a manner not unlike that which she showed just before the truth about her father came to light. When things take a head, it will be all she and her friends can do to quell a coming darkness and prevent a future invasion._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Teen Titans._

_**A.N.:** This is the first installment in a two-part series. Due to the nature of the plot, this first part namely involves Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire, but the other Titans, as well as many more, will play key roles in the sequel. With all of this said, I hope you enjoy the story._

**Note:**

_**In case anyone has yet to hear, there is talk of a Teen Titans series 6 for the animated show and that Terra Strong and Greg Cipes (Raven and Beast Boy respectively) are personally spreading word about it and asking people to give support for the continuation of the show. Though I am not sure how effective such things are and can offer no proof to the validity of such claims, there is also a petition to sign here:**_

_** . **_

_**I believe I was signature #9,356 when I signed a few weeks ago.**_

* * *

It was a quiet day in Jump City, as a great many of them had been since the Titans had defeated the Brain and his army of villains, froze them cryogenically, and sent them off to separate max security prisons. The founding members of the Titans, or at least four of them, sat in the main room of their tower that overlooked the city which sprawled along the coast across the small bay of salt-water that separated them.

Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy sat in front of their enormous flat screen, battling it out over their favorite racing game. It was the fifth time they had competed on that particular game in the past month, and any spectators could give the observation that it was the game to which they competed the most fervently. Robin currently held the lead in this most recent of competitions with two victories in a row and a third seemingly on the way, something he made sure to keep them reminded of, but he was tailed closely by and equally rowdy Cyborg and Beast Boy. Starfire sat on the far side of the couch the three boys occupied, calmly observing the familiar chaos and happily grooming a purring Silkie—how an insect could purr was beyond Beast Boy, but that thing could give the engines on any of Cyborg's cars a run for their money.

The fifth Titan, though this was not terribly uncommon, had yet to show herself that day. Trying not to let this bother him any more than it already was, Beast Boy continued to battle Cyborg for second place and the chance to challenge Robin for first, masterfully swerving around a rocket fired by the metal man's animated car.

It had been a little over three years since they had defeated Trigon and four since the Brain and his syndicate of villains had fallen, and the Titans had each undergone varying degrees of change since their greatest victory.

Cyborg, given he was a few older than the rest of them, had matured only slightly in the face, and was still a giant metal man, of course. Such a fact was likely to change anytime soon, but he had once confined in Beast Boy that he gave any extra money from what he received from the city into clone research. While he was by no means as smart as or even coming close to rivaling the genius that was Victor Stone, the implications of that knowledge were not lost on Beast Boy. If he could get a healthy clone of his original body and somehow transfer his consciousness to it, Cyborg could essentially be reborn as a fully human man.

While still eagerly waiting for this to happen, though, he had still given his metal self quite a few upgrades. There were now more silver plates on his person than there were white, and he still liked to implement the clear plates that showed off the inner workings of the machinery that kept him alive and moving; these plates still glowed blue from the light of the power source inside him. He upgraded his equipment every year, adding new hidden laser guns and gadgets of disproportionate power—some to electrocute, some to freeze, etc.—given their small size, and Beast Boy liked to think he would now make an epic boss at the end of some future-set video game. Cybrog had also upgraded his sonic canon, doubling its power and upgrading its battery pack to allow for as much use as his previous one. He'd also said he'd made some changes to his eye scanners, but Beast Boy had had a difficult enough time understanding the other stuff that it had gone over his head. All he knew was Cyborg looked pretty bad $$ now.

Starfire had probably changed the least out of the group, but she had changed enough for the differences to be noticeable. Her face too had matured, more so than Cyborg's, yet she still retained that glint of youthful innocence she carried with her through life. In battle, she had begun to wear a mild variation of the battle armor worn by her people and had soon resorted to simply wearing it about the tower as well. Her hair had grown considerably longer, and Beast Boy often found himself wondering how it never got in the way during battle. If it was even possible, the Tamaranean Princess had grown even more physically powerful over the years, and her accuracy with her starbolts was nigh on deadly. Beast Boy was certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that he would never want to face her in combat, for she was a definite force to be reckoned with.

Robin had finally sprouted and was presently identical in height to the Dark Knight of whom he had done such a terrible job of claiming to have no history with. Beast Boy swore that, if he were to don Batman's superhero attire, a person would be hard-pressed to tell the two apart. Robin had begun cutting his hair shorter in recent years, though he still seemed to see fit to go through a bottle of hair gel in a weak. The Boy Wonder's physique was adequate, a testament to the many hours he spent honing his physical prowess, and this was another aspect that resembled him to Gotham's bat-themed superhero. Robins clothing still retained their streetlight colors, but his spandex pants had been replaced with green, almost army styled leggings that were tucked into his heavy, metal-tipped combat boots that could deal permanent damage to any nose they came into contact with. Fortunately, the Boy Wonder had finally grown into his feet, as they no longer seemed two or three sizes too large. The last touch was his cape, which he had actually chose to replace with a weapon belt that wrapped around his chest, holding two extendable quarter staffs within arm's reach over each shoulder.

Beast Boy had done some changing of his own. He too had grown and was no longer the shortest person on the team! Whenever he chose to gloat over this, however, it was always quickly pointed out by Cyborg that he was still only a few inches taller than Raven, officially squashing the changeling's pride. As opposed to Robin, Beast Boy had allowed his hair to grow a little to make his ears stick out a little less, finally releasing himself from the strict rules imposed on him by Mento during his time on the Doom Patrol. This was also shown by his change in attire, to which his Doom Patrol uniform had been switched out for a short-sleeved white uniform with dark purple additions, including his boots and his belt, that had a metallic sheen to them. It was a much more personalized look in that he had been the one to choose it himself.

Beast Boy worked out occasionally, but not nearly as much as Robin or Cyborg. The way he figured it, their daily lives were enough of a workout, even if crime rates in the city had dropped after the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil. He'd gained some muscle naturally as he got older anyway, granting him a lean physique he quite liked. Besides, he only fought in human form when someone got the jump on him, and his shifting was becoming swifter, countering this setback and making it moot. The changeling was also seriously debating on changing his superhero name. "Beast Boy" had served him well for years, but he was getting older, and the "Boy" didn't really fit anymore. "Beast Man" just sounded goofy, though, so he'd been stumped for a few months on the issue. Maybe something would just come to him one day.

Raven had probably changed the most out of the group. She too had allowed her hair to grow out, to which hers now extended to a little past her shoulders, and she often wore it tied back. Whether from her continued exposure to the sun or from her altered outlook on life, her complexion had colored somewhat, giving her skin a little less of a greyish hue. Her costume had undergone quite a few changes too. The spandex of the attire had been replaced with simple dark cloth—she said it breathed more—and now more resembled a Roman- or Greek-style dress than a leotard, extending down to her feet but slit up both sides. Her cloak too had been changed to cloth, fastened at the shoulders by two golden clasps. The cowl of that cloak had been altered as well, now dipping down over her brow to resemble an avian beak. The final change had been made to her belt, which was now made of ovular gold links, and the center piece was in the unmistakable shape of a raven with its wings spread wide.

During the past few years, though she had not grown physically, Raven had gone through a great deal of personal growth and had opened up a little of herself to the Titans, mostly at Beast Boy's irritatingly stubborn insistence that she do so. She spent time with each of them to offset the many hours she spent in solitude, meditating and studying her magical arts.

Occasionally, she assisted Cyborg with maintenance on the T-Car, something the changeling had been surprised to find she genuinely enjoyed doing. Also occasionally, but with much less frequency, she would accompany Starfire to the "mall of shopping", as the Tamaranean princes had long ago dubbed it. Beast Boy suspected that the only reason the mage of 'simple tastes', as she put it, had agreed to the particular pass-time was the musty old book store that was about a block from the mall Starfire liked to frequent, a place the two girls would stop by on their way back to the tower. Secretly, Beast Boy also suspected Raven's willingness to put up with the girlish outing had something to do with the pet store in the mall, something he assumed based on the bunny fur that often lightly coated her sleeves at the wrist upon the girls' return, but the changeling could be wrong. He was initially flabbergasted by her seeming affection for bunnies after contemplating over the short stint she herself had spent as one of the furry little creatures, but perhaps she had gotten over that or simply didn't hold actual bunnies responsible for the matter.

Beast Boy had once tried turning into a bunny himself to lighten her mood after she seemed to wake up more grumpy than normal, but she hadn't responded to him nearly as well as he suspected she had the store residing bunnies.

As a martial arts expert, Robin's favorite pass-time was naturally training in the gym, perfecting his styles and the minute motions of the exact art. And so, once a week, he and Raven would spar. Despite her relatively small size and the great deal of time she spent studying, apparently Raven was quite the naturally gifted expert in martial arts. The Boy Wonder had even informed Beast Boy and the others that she had bested him in a number of their matches, no small feat to be sure. The changeling thought her natural prowess had a great deal to do with how often she meditated, as she had once told him that a strong mind led to a strong body.

Beast Boy had once deliberated on implementing that advice personally, but he'd quickly come to the decision that he wouldn't have the patience for something as slow-paced as meditation. His brain would probably just get bored and wonder as it was often prone to doing. Also, given the nature of his powers, Beast Boy would rarely if ever be forced to fight in human form. As such, Raven's current endeavor with the changeling was to help him with his abilities. While he could change into a wide range of animals with size no longer being much of an issue when it came to sustaining the morph, Beast Boy had surprisingly little knowledge of the animals he so often found himself turning into. He wished the time he had embarrassed himself in front of Aqualad as a dolphin hadn't been the only time he'd done something stupid.

Raven had been rendered momentarily speechless when Beast Boy had gone to her one day and asked her for help, but she had agreed without any visible signs of hesitation or unwillingness in regards to teaching him. And so, she helped him hone his senses, both in and out of form, and had even showed him books with the images of animal he hadn't seen, increasing the number of forms under his proverbial belt of shape-shifting. After learning he could not only turn into an animal on Earth but also the alien lifeforms on Starfire's home planet, the changeling had been eager to learn more of such creatures. To aid him in this endeavor, Raven had taught him of the animals from her own homeworld. Beast Boy had listened with uncommonly rapt attention, both eager to learn of new animals he could shift into as well as learn a little more of where the more mysterious Titan on the team had come from. It had been one of the only times he heard Raven speak of her homeworld and had wondered on more than one occasion if she preferred it that way, preferred to forget about where she came from. As one who could sympathize about not wishing o dwell on past events, the changeling had never been the one to bring up the topic personally, instead leaving the choice to her.

During these lessons, Beast Boy was actually able to keep his mind from wondering to just about everything in sight, something it had the almost annoying habit of doing and something it was doing no less of the older he got.

As if to prove this, Beast Boy was so distracted over his contemplation of past events that he almost missed it when his car exploded—the key word being 'almost'—and realized he should have been paying attention to the game at hand—literally. The green Titan's brow furrowed to mirror his deep frown as he fumed over the fact that perhaps thinking wasn't as good a thing as everyone said. One would need look no further than this instance for their proof. This was his fourth loss this month, all of which he had been distracted for at one point or another by such thoughts!

"Booyah!" Cyborg cheered, undoubtedly Beast Boy's defeater, as the metal man stood to do a victory jig even as he used a Super Boost to pass a now fuming Robin. Starfire, never one to pick sides in friendly competitions, clapped fervently for his victory, and Cyborg soaked up the glory like a non-electronic, totally-not-water-wary sponge.

"Hey, you totally cheated!" Beast Boy jumped into an upright position, though still seated, and pointed an accusatory finger at his cybernetic friend to accompany his vehement protest. Cyborg was naturally unaffected by and unbelieving of this ridiculous accusation.

"Nu-uh." The big man snickered. "While you were off in la-la-land, I charged my special and blasted your toy car to bits." Cyborg gloated, showing off the ample pride he had for his animated car that very nearly rivaled his pride in the T-Car. As Beast Boy opened his mouth to protest further, despite knowing the fault of his loss had been with him and not Cyborg, the main doors swooshed open. Hood drawn low, none other than the main star of Beast Boy's previous thoughts stepped into the room.

The game was quickly banished to the recesses of Beast Boy's conscious mind.

"Hey, Rae!" The green Titan's greeting was cheerful as he threw his arms over the back of the couch to look at the mage directly, ignoring another snicker by Cyborg that was given for very different reasons than the one previous. Shoving the big man's tease down to wallow with the forgotten game, Beast Boy returned his focus to Raven. In recent weeks, he had been able to mask his growing concern for the quiet girl's well-being, but that didn't mean the concerns weren't as present as they had been for the past month.

He'd been happy with how Raven had been getting along with the team of late, but, in these recent weeks, she'd begun to rescind on her personal efforts to keep close to the rest of the Titans. She'd begun locking herself away for the majority of any day, and she'd become temperamental in a way that set the hair on Beast Boy's neck on end—and not in a good way. Raven was falling back on old habits of snapping at anyone who showed concern for her, and, while she had recently begun to go without it while in the tower, she'd again started wearing that cowl of hers night and day, keeping it low over her eyes as if to sate a migraine.

To his chipper greeting, Raven simple offered a noncommittal grunt, ignoring the troublesome nickname given to her by her fellows as she moved over to the counter where her teapot sat. Back for more tea, it seemed. When he noticed the pot of boiling water already on the stove, however, the changeling realized their reclusive friend must have already been in the room that afternoon. He couldn't for the life of him remember it, though, something that could only mean he had been too engrossed in the game to take notice of the door opening. It was a shame, too, because he'd been trying to keep a close watch on the door for her entrance.

But then Beast Boy remembered his need to use the bathroom several minutes before and found himself cursing his bladder for being unable to contain its contents for just a few extra minutes.

As it was, that no longer mattered because Raven was there now.

"What'cha been up to?" Beast Boy pressed, trying to ease his way into a conversation as to what had been recently troubling her.

"Meditating." Raven's tone was flat as she said this, though it held just a pinch of irritation.

"Is everything okay?" He tried to sound casual and was pleased when the words came out in such a way. Of course, with he being an empath and all, she could probably tell anyway. Another member of the team joined in the conversation while Beast Boy contemplated on what to say next.

"I have been curious of this as well," Starfire said as she turned around in her seat, momentarily abandoning her grooming of Silkie to join Beast Boy in looking at their relatively solitary friend—a friend who had the almost annoying habit of keeping her personal troubles to herself. The Tamaranean's voice lacked most of it's natural mirth, instead conveying the genuine concern she too harbored. "You have seemed troubled as of late, friend Raven."

"I'm fine. Just tired." Raven didn't even glance up at them from the preparation of her tea, and, once that task was complete, she turned and departed out the swishing doors without another word. Beast Boy and Starfire exchanged uneasy glances across the back of the couch.

While it was true she had become increasingly quiet, even by her standards, Raven had also been more aggressive in their fights as of late and had even begun going out to fight lower class criminals on her own. She'd very nearly put one criminal in a sleep-induced coma in response to a simple insult thrown her way about her heritage. Sure, it was a touchy subject. But, Raven had never tried to hospitalize someone before, and the guy hadn't actually known anything about her past; he'd just tried to throw her off her game. She'd only gotten worse after that, resorting to fear tactics whenever chasing a criminal through the streets at night—say playing the cat in a sadistic game of cat and mouse, purposefully not catching the criminal to keep the game running longer. On one of such nights, a thief had been found nearly catatonic while Raven simply stated he had tried to shoot her. At the time, Beast Boy had thought nothing of it, but, remembering the incident with Doctor Light, he'd actually found himself wondering how much of the guy's shooting had been in self-defense.

Beast Boy didn't like doubting Raven, but she wasn't making matters easy. Either she was angry about something or she herself was afraid and was taking it out on Jump City's criminals. Neither was a particularly good option.

Something _had_ to be bothering her.

Beast Boy and Starfire exchanged a nod of understanding and stood to follow their friend, Starfire lifting Silkie in her arms as she went. When nearing the door, the two Titans glanced back at the two still gaming to see Robin glancing at them over his shoulder, showing his own concern. Cyborg, though he was too engrossed in their video game at the current time to notice something was wrong, had undoubtedly noticed the change in Raven as well. It would be hard to miss. Robin gave a nod, telling Beast Boy and Starfire they should follow and try to get to the bottom of things.

He was worried about Raven too.

Beast Boy gave a thumbs up, and he and Starfire hurried out of the room without another moment's hesitation, trailing after a quiet and temperamental mage. They traversed the many winding and familiar halls, relieved when they spotted Raven about to enter her room.

"Hey, Raven, wait up," Beast Boy called to her, deciding against the us of her nickname in light of her already troubled mood. The mage stopped, warm tea in hand, and turned to face them, much of her face still hidden beneath the shadow of her cowl.

"What?" Her voice was her usual monotone as the two Titans stopped before her.

"Well, we were just..." Annoyingly, Beast Boy found his words falling short. He'd been thinking too much of past events and not enough on what he was going to say upon finding her. As he nervously rubbed the back of his neck, Starfire thankfully didn't have the same problem.

"We are worried." Starfire intervened, and the changeling nodded in agreement to her words, thankful for her intrusion.

"Why?" Raven's tone and expression were blank, but Beast Boy could just tell she was giving it her all just to appear that way in front of them. Starfire paused, searching for the right words that wouldn't come across as an insult to one who didn't appreciate her problems being addressed.

"You have seemed... angry as of late," she finally decided was an appropriate response.

"Yeah." Beast Boy chipped in. "Almost like when you lost it on Doctor Light." He really hadn't meant for it to come out like that. He'd meant to mention the problems going on in her life at that time, but Raven's eyes were already narrowing before he could take it back.

"I can control myself, if that's what you're so worried about," the mage spat, her fingers tightening their hold on the teacup in her hands. Beast Boy's ears drooped as he mentally chided himself. He'd said something stupid again, and the accusation in Raven's eyes, for not caring, hurt him on a level he couldn't describe.

"That is not what Beast Boy meant. We are simply worried about your well-being." Starfire tried to console a fussing Silkie as the alien insect began to react negatively to the tension of the conversation. The alien girl's earnest words drew Raven's stern violet gaze, and the mage's tight grip on the coffee cup she held loosened somewhat.

"Well, don't be. I'm fine," was her dry response, meaning to drop the subject then and there.

"But, you don't seem fine." Beast Boy persisted, not backing down in what they had come for. He was worried. Starfire was worried. Everyone was worried, so they weren't just going to drop it.

"I said I'm fine, so I am!" Raven's harsh gaze made him flinch away when it turned to him, but the green Titan held his ground.

"But, maybe we could help y-"

"No! Leave me alone!" Raven yelled as the teacup in her hands shattered to the will of her powers, showering the ground with tea and shards of porcelain. Without another word on the matter, she stepped over the shards and into her room and slammed the door shut. Starfire and Beast Boy stood there for a moment, stock still and completely shocked.

"We were only..." Beast Boy began in a helpless undertone, and a hand was placed on his shoulder to reassure him. As she was the only one there, he didn't need to turn to see it was Starfire.

"It will be alright. Once she has had time to calm, we will ask her again," The kind-hearted Tamaranean said, and Beast Boy gave a dejected nod as she turned and walked away, consoling an upset Silkie in her arms as she went.

He just stood there for a time staring down at the shards of what had once been a teacup, the proof of Raven's inner turmoil. It had been years since she'd lost control like that, and that she had now, after everything else going on, was certainly no coincidence.

It was only another moment before he decided to clean up the mess. So, he returned to the main room, not surprised to find Cyborg and Robin still battling it out as Starfire again watched with a now slumbering Silkie in her lap. Whether they noticed his entrance or not, he didn't know because they never once said anything. Silently, the changeling grabbed a handful of paper towels, deliberating a moment before refilling the teapot and setting it to boil. Grabbing the broom and dustpan, he then left again, returning to Raven's room.

In another few minutes, Beast Boy was back in the main room, throwing out tea-soaked paper towels and shards of a teacup that were too small to hope for a successful reassembly. As the kettle was singing by that time, he retrieved another teacup and a bag of tea, searching through the kitchen's many drawers and cupboards until he found where Raven kept them. He tried his best to make the tea and hoped it was sufficient—he really only knew what little he did after watching Raven make tea so many times.

Beast Boy left that tea sitting in front of her door and, wanting her to find it before it got cold, knocked on her door twice. He was tempted to wait until she opened the door and then engage her in a screaming match until she either snapped and tried to attack him, which would prove that something was seriously wrong, or she admitted to whatever was on her mind in a fit of uncontrollable rage. But, he couldn't bring himself to upset her any further.

So, not wanting to bother her before he had a better plan of action, Beast Boy departed to his own room. There, as he had no intention of leaving his room for the remainder of the day as it was already late in the afternoon, he donned his pajamas of black pants and a simple white tee and spread out on the top bunk of his bed to determine just what that course of action should be.

Had he been able to see into her room throughout the process of cleaning and tea giving, Beast Boy would have seen Raven sitting on the floor at the foot of her bed with her hands clasping her temples as she rested her brow against her upright knees, trying her best to calm her mind while blocking out all external happenings. She was vaguely aware of another presence outside the door but paid it no mind.

Only when Beast Boy knocked was Raven drawn back to reality, opening her eyes and listening for whatever came next. She expected him to speak, to again try his hand at getting answers from her, but he didn't. To her great surprise, he only knocked, and then his footsteps trailed down the hall and away from her door. It was another moment before Raven's curiosity got the better of her, and she stood and crossed the room to her door. She hadn't known what she had been expecting, upon opening her door, but it wasn't what she found.

The shattered teacup, a result of her frightening loss of control, had been cleaned up, and a fresh cup of tea had been left there. Lowering her hood, Raven picked up the cup and looked into its depths, illogically hoping to find an answer to her problems somewhere inside yet clearly only seeing the bottom of the cup in the murky drink. Loosing a sigh of helpless regret, she turned her gaze down the hall to where the one who had proffered the beverage had disappeared.

"I'm sorry." The words were spoken softly, never to reach their intended, and Raven returned to her room, shutting the door behind herself, gently this time.

* * *

Beast Boy's ears twitched, and whatever dream he had previously been enthralled by was shattered when his acute hearing picked up the distant sound of an enraged roar, followed closely by the forceful shattering of a large window. He shot up in his bed, a cursory glance to the clock on the wall telling him he'd been asleep for nearly three hours, and whipped his frantic attention around his unkempt room. Of course the problem, whatever it was, could not be seen from where he was. That roar had come from outside his room, and, when the changeling's half-awake mind finally processed that fact, he leapt down from the top bunk of his bed. He was out the door in seconds, not bothering to take time out to exchange his pajamas for his uniform.

With his bare feet on the cold floor, Beast Boy turned his attention to interpreting his surroundings with his different senses. He could hear a distant howling now, like wind through a tunnel, and the scent of salty fresh air was so foreign inside the tower that he picked it up almost immediately as it wafted through the hall with all the subtleties of a fire truck. His senses confirmed what his instincts had already told him.

It was all coming from the direction of Raven's room.

Beast Boy took off running, morphing into a cheetah to sprint through the halls much faster than his human self could, and he was in front of her door within moments. Quickly reverting to his bipedal self, the changeling ended up banging on her door in his great haste rather than simply knocking.

"Raven?" When he received no response, Beast Boy knocked again, straining to hear anything that would indicate her presence within the room. All he heard was the continued howling of the wind. "Raven, you in there?" He tried again, but this attempt was no more successful than the first. His panic only growing, Beast Boy punched in the door's override code and squeezed inside before the door had even slid open half way. What he found had him halting in his tracks and certainly did his anxious mind no favors.

The room was trashed. Bookcases had been overturned, their contents cluttering the floor in a garbled mess, her bed looked like it had been snapped in two by something striking it in the middle, and everything breakable appeared to have been shattered. Of course included in this last category was the wall-encompassing window on the far side of the room, which looked like it had been blown out. If it wasn't bad enough that it looked as though the room had had a thorough tossing by the mob, Raven was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, however, though it was dulled by the almost overpowering scent of salt-water, Beast Boy could still pick up her scent as it headed out over the bay in the direction of the city.

Taking out his communicator, always held on his person for emergencies, Beast Boy was about to contact Robin. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the towers alarm blared to life overhead, beating him to the punch. Covering his sensitive ears, the changeling ran from the room, again taking the form of a cheetah to bolt to the tower's main room. Thankfully, the alarm shut off by the time he got there, Robin having no doubt answered the call for help.

"Dudes!" Everyone turned when Beast Boy burst through the doors, the three other Titans donning mirrored looks of concern at his urgency. "Raven's gone! Her room's been trashed, and her window's totally busted!"

"What?" Three cries of alarm met this news as Beast Boy joined the three in front of the super computer.

"I thought I heard glass shatter, and I could smell fresh air, so I went to check on her, but she was gone when I got there."

"Do you know what happened?" Robin pinched the bridge of his nose when Beast Boy's answer to this question was a simple shake of the head. Always able to think quick on his feet, though, the Boy Wonder quickly came up with a plan of action.

"Do you know where she went?" was the leader's next question, and Beast Boy's answer was an affirmative this time. "Alright. Starfire, Cyborg, and I will go find out what's going on that requires our help. Hopefully, we'll be able to handle it with just the three of us. Beast Boy, you go find Raven. Contact us the minute you know anything. Go!"

As Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg ran for the doors to make their way down to the garage, Beast Boy morphed into a hawk and took to the air, flying out a window at the top of the room that was left open just for him.

* * *

A.N.:

Inspiration for Raven's new attire: wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1529938-raven_

Inspiration for Beast Boy's new attire: /wp-content/uploads/2013/02/beast-boy_

Tamaranean Battle Armor: . /tumblr_luzjv7ATSy1qk96v2o1_r1_

I own none of these images.


	2. Rak'Naw

_**AN:** Hey, all who are reading this. Thanks to anyone who read the first chapter. This is chapter two, but you probably already knew that. This one is also centered around Beast Boy's point of view. I wrote both chapters in one day, but decided to review it In the morning to look for errors. If there are still some in here, I apologize. But, in my defense, I am an Engineering Major, not an English Major. Anyhow, I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but this story is rated T for violence, just to be safe. Though, it could possibly be K+, I'm inclined to believe T. _

_To FelynxTiger: Thanks for the review! It made my day, or night depending on how you look at it. Hope you enjoy chapter 2._

_Anyhow, on to the story._

_P.S. I swear the name will make sense at some point._

_Disclaimer stands. I still don't own the Teen Titans._

* * *

_Beast Boy centered POV:_

Beast Boy scoured the street bellow, looking for any sign of the source of the ample destruction he was seeing. There was rubble everywhere along with the pulverized remains of cars and the occasional bent street light ripped out of the ground. A few civilians were cowering behind some of the cars and piles of rubble, though Beast Boy had no idea why they hadn't just run off. Suddenly, an explosion erupted out of one of the alleys he was flying near, sending a few civilians scurrying away as quickly as possible, only to hide once more behind anything possible. Waves of heat from the explosion washed over the changeling, rippling his feathers, and he became painfully aware that no one was screaming. Whenever he and the other Titans had been to a scene where explosions were happening, or even where a simple fight was taking place, the civilians were always screaming, trying to get as far from the danger as possible. What was going on? Why was _this _attack so different?

A confused Beast Boy landed a few yards away from the alley, tensing when he noticed a figure was walking out. The person's silhouette was visible through the smoke and dust that was now assaulting his eyes and the changeling braced himself, ready to morph into any animal as soon as the situation called for it. But, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

As the smoke began to clear a little, he was barely able to make out the person's features, but they were features he was all too familiar with. It was a sight that made Beast Boy's heart stop momentarily. That unmistakable purple hair, coupled with the red chakra stone and pale skin. No, it just wasn't possible. Maybe it was just a matter of timing, one of those times where a person was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She just happened to be fighting whoever had caused the explosion and was the first person to emerge. But... he couldn't see anyone else in the alley which she was walking _out_ of, not looking over her shoulder but looking out at the street, too calm for comfort... It couldn't be...

"R-Raven?" Beast Boy asked weakly, and she turned to look at him, yellow, slitted eyes scanning over him as though trying to recall who he was. That couldn't be Raven; those weren't her eyes. And that evil smirk on her face when she saw the cowering civilians hiding throughout the street... It wasn't Raven. That much he knew for certain. But, since she didn't have four glowing red eyes, it wasn't Trigon, either. Beast Boy prepared to fight, and decided that, after all this, he would personally pay a visit to whatever had dared to possess Raven. Boy, would he have some words, and a nice punch, to share with them!

"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, but Raven's smirk only grew as her gaze once again turned to him. She then lifted her hand in his direction, an action that immediately put the green titan on edge. With a simple flick of her wrist, Beast Boy was sent flying backwards and crashed through the window of the diner across the street, the impact making him cry out in pain as several glass shards slashed his skin open in numerous places. He landed heavily on one of the tables inside, effectively breaking it, and hit the ground just as hard. Groaning as he rolled onto his stomach, his entire body screaming in protest at the movement; he could have sworn he heard something crack when he hit. The shards of glass beneath him dug into his hands as he propped himself up, trying to shake off the dazed feeling in his head.

When his vision did clear though, he saw a pair of familiar boots in front of him. A pale hand then grabbed the collar of his uniform and effortlessly lifted him off the ground, high enough that his feet were no longer on the floor. He gaze met Raven's, an evil smirk playing across the empath's face. Beast Boy's fingers twitched, indecision present as he was unsure of what to do. Even though he had the strength for it, the green titan couldn't attack her. Whatever this thing was, it was still Raven's body it was in. Hurting it would hurt her.

"Raven! Put him down!" A voice demanded from outside the diner, and Beast Boy looked up to see Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire in the middle of the street, all ready for a fight in their respective ways. When Raven said and did nothing in response to the order, Robin growled. "Put. Him. Down. Now!" he repeated, over enunciating every word. As though she hadn't even heard their leader, Raven lifted her free hand, her black energy enveloping it to form a blade. Robin's eyes widened a fraction before he sprung into action, removing a bird-a-rang from his utility belt.

"No, don't!" Beast Boy yelled as the Boy Wonder prepared to throw the weapon. They weren't close enough to see that it wasn't actually Raven doing this! But, before either Raven or Robin could finish their attacks, thick ice suddenly encased Raven's feet, surprising her enough to the point of dropping the changeling. Sensing what was coming, Beast Boy scurried to his feet and immediately dove out of the diner right before a wave of energy shot out from Raven, destroying her partial ice prison along with the diner. The green titan stumbled as the shock wave hit him, but he was able to turn the loss of footing into a tumble, landing on his feet and turning in time to see the diner collapse. Beast Boy backed up until he was standing with the other three Titans, all four waiting for signs of movement.

They didn't have to wait long, as some of the rubble, large ceiling tiles by the looks of it, soon began to move. After shifting for a few seconds, the tiles were blasted off by a large burst of energy, revealing an outstretched hand. Unfazed and unscathed, Raven slowly stood from underneath the rubble, lightly dusting herself off.

"Raven, I don't know why you're doing this, but-" Robin began but was cut off by Beast Boy.

"It's not her!" he interrupted quickly, the others giving him confused looks in response to the abnormal comment.

"What?" Robin asked befuddled as Raven slowly stalked out of the dirt and rubble, an enraged expression now playing across her face.

"It's not her! Look, her eyes are different! Something's doing this to her!" Beast Boy shot back urgently. Robin did as he asked, and, by the way his eyes widened slightly and his brow furrowed, the changeling could tell the Boy Wonder had seen what he meant.

"Possessed or not, she destroying the city. We have to attack. Try to subdue her!" Robin ordered quickly, having no time to think of any alternatives given Raven's shrinking proximity. "Titans, go!" Robin sprang into action once again, followed closely by Starfire and Cyborg. Grudgingly, Beast Boy realized he was right and was quick to follow.

If they could subdue her, they could find a way to reverse whatever had happened. It was obviously this thing she had been battling over the past few weeks. Perhaps she had thought she could handle it without having to bother the other four members of her team. What was possessing her? _Was_ it Trigon? Had he found a way to come back? Whatever the case, the Titans first had to get Raven back to the tower to figure any of this out.

The four said Titans surrounded Raven and attacked. Robin went in first, trying to use his ample martial arts training to take her down, but she simply blocked all his attacks using her dark energy. Seeing the futility of his onslaught, the Boy Wonder jumped back and threw a few freeze disks, all sailing right for the empath. Raven jumped over them with unnatural ease and then deflected a few starbolts that had been shot her way, courtesy of a certain Tamaranian Princess. When she landed, the mage ducked under the large arc of a street post, the wielder being Cyborg, and, once it had gone past her, hit the back side of the pole with an energy enforced backhand, sending the metal man off balance. The next instant, Raven was in midair right in front of Cyborg and delivered a spinning heel kick to his jaw. The tech specialist flew a few dozen feet back before being caught by Starfire.

Still in rotation in midair, Raven then met Beast Boy's gorilla fist with her own, much smaller fist. The changeling felt a wave of energy shoot through his arm and then the rest of him. A strange tingling sensation filled his whole being before he was suddenly back in human form. She morphed him! An alarmed Beast Boy was sent flying backwards from the force of her energy packed punch. But, he was able to morph into a humming bird to steady himself before flying off. He then landed, in human form, next to Robin in one of the nearby alleys.

They hadn't even been able to face her for a minute! Raven was wiping the floor with them!

"She knows all of our moves!" The Boy Wonder hissed under his breath, mirroring Beast Boy's sentiments almost to a tee. The two could clearly hear explosions as she searched for them, so apparently Cyborg and Starfire had hid momentarily as well. As Beast Boy thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to handle the situation, he prayed silently that the civilians weren't hurt. Then an idea struck him. Of course! It was so obvious!

"Can you distract her?" he asked suddenly, and Robin blinked, taken aback.

"Yes. Why? Do you have an idea?" Beast Boy nodded, though the martial arts expert seemed a little hesitant to accept this. "..Alright, I'll see what I can do." he finally said, trusting his companion's plan would work before sprinting from their hiding spot. Beast Boy couldn't help but feel gratitude at that. It always felt good when someone believed in you, even if they needed a small but of time to think it over. The changeling then closed his eyes and focused, trying to recall the lesson that would aid the group here.

_Flashback_

_ "Huh?" asked a bewildered Beast Boy, and Raven sighed._

_ "Basically, it just means that my powers can't affect it." she said plainly, and Beast Boy nodded slowly in mild understanding, greatly intrigued by what she was telling him even if he couldn't comprehend most of the specifics._

_ "Okay, so this... thing has something in it that cancels your powers?" he asked, trying to get down to a little bit of the details; that was what they were there for, after all._

_ "The Rak'Naw, and, in a way, yes. My powers won't work on it, but I can still use them." She moved over to a bookshelf and took out one of her thick, leather bound books. Sitting on the floor across from him and setting it down, she began flipping through the pages. About half way through, she stopped and turned the book around, so he could see it._

_ "Whoa!" Beast Boy exclaimed excitedly as he looked at the page. The creature looked beyond deadly! He couldn't tell how big it was from the picture, but he would guess it was pretty big. It had a relatively narrow, armored body and razor sharp teeth, and it's knees were backwards when compared to those of a human, allowing it to crouch easier and lower. It's head extended backwards to a downward spike, allowing it to attack things that were behind it, an all direction assailant. It had four long arms—two where Beast Boy would expect and two more extending from the top of it's shoulders—and each one seemed to have the blade of a scythe in place of it's forearm and hand. When the blades were held point to point, they made an 'X' shape, as Beast Boy could plainly see in one of the pictures._

_ "This thing is cool!" he gushed as he looked at the 'Rak'Naw' as Raven had called it, his gamer's nerdiness showing itself in spades. This thing would be totally wicked to play on a fighting game! He could see it now!_

_ 'In one corner we have Adonis, a villain local to Jump City, and in the other we have the Rak'Naw, a deadly creature from an alien planet! Who will emerge victorious?' an actiony referee would announce. The fans, naturally would all cheer for the super awesome Rak'Naw because Adonis was a whiny toothpick who couldn't win a fight for his life(Haha! Suck it, Punk!). The awesome alien would then proceed to pummel said toothpick into the ground with overwhelming ease, winning the match in only a few seconds! Yeah!_

_ "But, Beast Boy," Raven began, drawing the changeling from his pleasant thoughts, and he looked up at at the seriousness in her tone. "You can't ever use this when I'm in the vicinity."_

_ "Why's that?" he asked innocently, waiting patiently for her to explain; he didn't have to use it at that _exact_ moment, after all._

_ "It gives off an aura that drains me of my energy. If exposed to it for too long, it could kill me." Beast Boy's ears drooped slightly at the thought of involuntarily hurting her. "These are used to hunt and eliminate renegades of my kind, and they are _very_ effective at doing so. You _can't_ use it while I'm around." Understanding the gravity of the situation, Beast Boy nodded grimly, his smile having vanished the instant she had said the word 'kill'._

_ "However," she continued, her voice softening somewhat, "I will still teach you how to_ _change into one of these in case you ever need to use it to protect yourself." Beast Boy's eyes brightened at the notion of her worrying about him, and he settled down to listen intently as she started her lesson._

_ "Okay. The Rak'Naw is generally around eight to nine feet tall when standing at it's full height, and they have a technique called phasing, which allows them to move through solid objects for a short time." she began..._

_End Flashback._

Beast Boy opened his eyes. He didn't want to use this, for obvious reasons. But, he knew he had no choice _but_ to use it. If he didn't, who knew what Raven could do to the city and the people in it. Swallowing past the uncertain lump in his throat, the green titan focused on the shape he needed to take and took a deep breath. He had never tried to morph into one of these before from fear that Raven might be too close—she had told him the range was at most ten yards, but he had never wanted to risk it—and was thus a little anxious over the outcome of a never before used morph. Even so, he soon felt his form changing, and, within a few seconds, Beast Boy was over eight feet tall with four scythe arms.

Seeing through the eyes of a Rak'Naw was awesome! He had two kinds of vision, as he remembered Raven explaining to him during the lesson. On was the normal kind, but it was the second that intrigued him. Everything looked blue, and he could see the heat signatures, appearing like red through white splotches, of everyone within a fifty foot radius, even through the walls! These things really would be the perfect hunters, he realized, but then Beast Boy turned his attention back to the situation at hand.

The changeling moved to the entrance of the alley, his arms acting like four more legs and making his movement resemble a spider's. His new body maneuvered with ease and stealth, and no one noticed him lurking in the shadows as he watched the fight outside. He would have to be fast when phasing, as Raven had also informed him—something about molecules becoming unstable if he stayed like that for too long. Falling apart at the molecular level definitely did _not_ sound like a fun time to him.

When he looked out of the alley in normal vision, he cursed himself inwardly for taking so long. Robin and Cyborg had been knocked back and looked greatly injured while Starfire was throwing all the starbolts she could muster at Raven. The mage either avoided them or deflected them using her dark energy. Growing tired, Starfire landed protectively in front of Robin and Cyborg, who were struggling to get up to help. Raven then began walking forward, her demeanor sinister as she had far more than proven her superiority in this fight. She was getting closer to Starfire, who was obviously losing hope, when Raven's step faltered, and she clutched her head, grimacing as though in pain.

'The actual Raven must be fighting back!' Beast Boy realized with an internal cheer.

Seeing his chance, he phased through the wall next to him and moved toward the empath with the unnatural speed of the creature he had become. The instant whatever was controlling Raven had complete control again, Beast Boy phased out of the wall next to her, closed the distance between them in less than a second, and wrapped his four scythe-like arms around her, pinning her arms to her body. The mage struggled, to no avail, to get free of her sudden imprisonment, cursing at him in some language he didn't understand. The mass of his new form brought Raven to her knees, and since the creature was immune to her magic, she couldn't blast him off. Beast Boy could feel her energy leaving her and entering him, and he ignored the voice in the back of his head that yelled at him to release her. He had to drain her of her energy! If she didn't have it, maybe whatever was controlling Raven would leave!

Suddenly, Raven gasped and stopped struggling, panting heavily in his grasp. Recognizing this as a good sign, Beast Boy immediately turned back into human form and knelt next to her, expression one of pure worry. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her eyes were normal again. He hadn't drained all her energy, but maybe it had been enough to scare the thing away.

"Raven-" he started cheerily, but was instantly interrupted by the empath.

"What are you doing?" she demanded furiously, confusing Beast Boy greatly. "Kill me before she comes back!" The changeling's heart lurched at her words as a nearby parking meter exploded from her overactive emotions, showering the ground with silver coins.

"No." he replied simply, his voice unwavering and determined. She then cried out and hunched over, clutching her head as a wave of energy shot from her. The pavement cracked around them, and Beast Boy gritted his teeth as the energy momentarily paralyzed him, a strange, numbing sensation he hadn't encountered very often. But, even after the paralysis passed, he didn't move. The other titans remained at a relatively safe distance, shocked by what they were both seeing and hearing. There was no way they would kill Raven! How could she even ask such a thing?

"You fool! Kill me now!" she yelled at the green Titan next to her, still clutching her head with her eyes clenched shut.

"No!" Beast Boy yelled back as he wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes tight as well. "I'm not gonna' kill you!"

"It's the only way to stop her!" A deafening wind surrounded them as a black sphere of energy began to expand from Raven, enveloping them both. Beast Boy ignored it. It wasn't important! The only thing that mattered was that he stay, that he do anything he could to help her get out of this _alive_!

"No it isn't!" he yelled over the roar as he hugged her tighter. "You can do this! I know you're strong enough! Just focus on us: your friends!" At this, Raven's eyes snapped open, and time seemed to momentarily stop for her. He was right, even if he didn't quite understand how. She had to focus! Filling her mind with her memories of the four friends she had found in the Titans, she began creating mental barriers to block the demon's access and keep herself grounded. After what felt like an agonizingly long span of time of time, the wind's roar and the black sphere of energy died down, leaving only Raven and Beast Boy in the middle of the decimated street. Her arms falling limp to her sides, Raven then passed out from exhaustion and would have fallen face first into the pavement had Beast Boy not been steadying her.

"Friends!" Starfire gasped as she flew over to them, the other two right on her heels. "Will she be alright?" she asked worried as Beast Boy held Raven's unconscious form close.

"I don't know, Star?" the changeling responded earnestly, ears drooping as he watched Raven's slightly twitching face. Even when unconscious she seemed to be struggling for control.

"Get her back to the tower for medical attention, and see what you can find out. I'll handle the situation here." Robin said, motioning to the incoming Jump City police cars. The green teen nodded and he, Starfire, and Cyborg quickly headed for the T-Car. The alien girl opened the back door for him since he was carrying Raven and then hurriedly got in the front seat as Cyborg started the engine. Then they were off, heading to the tower at a speed that was far too slow for Beast Boy's liking.

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_**AN:** I know this got serious really fast, but, I've never been one to beat around the bush. I don't know how often I'll be able to update with the combination of Physics and Calculus, but I'll try. Hope you liked it, and please review if you have the time._


	3. The Aftermath

**AN:** Sorry about all the errors that were in the first copy of this file. For some reason it dounloaded the version I hadn't fixed yet. Well, now it is. Okay, chapter 3. By the way, I have no idea how long this is going to be. I've got a basic map of it in my head, _very_ basic, but not an actual grasp on length.

To Densharr: She taught it to him as a selfless act, something she actually seemed to do a lot. If he ever needed to use it as the only means of survival, not necessarily when fighting against her, she wanted him to. The team also doesn't fight in the same area some of the time, so he could use it then. Keep in mind, though, he was exaggerating it's range from fear of hurting Raven with it. As for Raven seeing the future, I'm not sure. That would be an interesting thought. However, I think there would always be the possibility of someone possessing her, given she's half demon. Thanks for reviewing

To Angel-of-Energy: Thanks! I can't wait to write the rest of it! Hope you enjoy!

To FelynxTiger: It is going a little fast, but it's quite a ways from over, too. As for the current confusion, you guys only know as much as the characters, so your confusion probably matches theirs. I do plan on explaining more as the story progresses. Right now, the only character who has any semblance of the situation is Raven, and that's why I've stayed away from her POV for the time being. Don't want to spoil too much too fast.

Disclaimer stands.

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_Cyborg Centered POV:_

'Vitals look normal.' Cyborg thought as he reviewed the screens for heart rate, brain activity, and other such things. He looked over at Raven and sighed inwardly. How come none of them saw it coming? As soon as he had seen her in the city, holding Beast Boy by the throat, he cursed himself. They had let this happen, _again_! The signs were the same as last time! She began distancing herself and had an extremely short temper, just like the Trigon incident.

He still couldn't believe how easy it had been for Raven to whup every one of them. She had anticipated their every move and countered as though it was nothing but a mild workout!

She was currently levitating above one of the hospital beds in their med bay, and her eyes were closed. She had put herself into another coma. Cyborg figured it was like how his systems would shut down when there was an internal threat and then fight it off. Though, there was that time when he went on an eating frenzy due to a virus inside him where his systems hadn't shu-

'No! Stay on topic, Cy' He thought, shaking his head.

He and Raven weren't the only two in the room, and Cyborg turned his attention to the third, uncharacteristically quiet occupant. Starfire had left to help Robin with the police situation, but Beast Boy hadn't left the room once in the four hours since they had gotten Raven back to the tower. He was sitting in a chair next to Raven's bed with his feet on the chair and his arms draped over his knees. He was simply staring at Raven, and Cyborg was sure that he was also beating himself up about this. He sighed. Anyone could see the little grass stain had a thing for their quiet team mate. But, he didn't know how to deal with it, so he just kept quiet.

"Everything still looks normal. There's a little elevated brain activity, but that's normal for Raven." Cyborg announced, and Beast Boy glanced at him and nodded, the went back to staring at Raven.

"We didn't even put a scratch on her. Hah! And, you were worried about us hurting her." He said with a laugh, and Beast Boy glowered at him, instantly shutting the metal man up.

"Sorry. That was a bad joke." Cyborg apologized sincerely, and Beast Boy sighed.

"It's alright, Cy. I know you're just trying to lighten the mood. I just don't know if that's possible at the moment."

"She'll pull through, B. She always has. She's a tough girl." Beast Boy laughed at the comment.

"Tell me about it."

"I guess it is possible to lighten the mood."Cyborg lightly gloated, and Beast Boy laughed again.

"Thanks." he said grinning. And Cyborg waved a hand before turning back to the monitors to see if everything was still normal. It was.

"So, what was that thing you turned into?" he asked intrigued. "I've never seen you use it before." He'd never even seen anything _like_ it before, and it seemed to affect Raven in a monumentally negative way. Beast Boy glanced at Raven.

"She taught it to me in one of our sessions." he said quietly.

"What sessions?" Cyborg asked,completely lost now.

"Oh, that's right. You guys don't know do you?" Beast Boy asked, more to himself than Cyborg. "She's been teaching me things for the past few years. Certain things I can do in certain forms that I never understood or realized. Even some new forms."

"Where was this going on? I never saw you?"

"In her room." Beast Boy replied simply, and Cyborg's jaw dropped.

"She let you in her _room_?" Beast Boy laughed at the reaction.

"Yeah, I was surprised at first too. Anyway, a few times a month, I meet her there, and she teaches me a few things. She's a really good teacher too. The thing I turned into is called a Rak'naw. Apparently it's used to hunt runaways of her kind... Though, I guess now I can see why." his voice got quieter, and his ears drooped as he spoke, thinking about the fight. "It drained her energy really fast..."

"Is that why you've never used it?" Cyborg asked as realization hit him, and Beast Boy nodded. Cyborg sighed again at Beast Boy's downcast demeanor. "Don't beat yourself up, man. You had to use it. Who knows what she would have done if you hadn't."

"I know, but..." he paused for a moment and then closed his eyes tight. "She wanted me to kill her, Cy! I've never killed anyone, and definitely wouldn't-"

"I know, man." Cyborg interrupted his short rant and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. On any normal occasion, Cyborg would have teased him about his obvious crush on the girl, but he knew now wasn't the time. Not after what had happened.

Cyborg's arm phone then beeped.

"Yo." he answered, his arm panel opening as Robin's face appeared on the little screen.

"I need you two to get to the main room." the boy wonder said, obviously tired. Heck, they all were but felt they couldn't sleep just yet.

"Alright, we'll be there in a minute." Cyborg replied, shutting off the phone, and his arm panel closed once more. "C'mon, B, she'll be fine for a while. Beast Boy nodded and stood up, and they both left the room.

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

When Cyborg and Beast Boy entered the main room, they saw Robin and Starfire sitting on the couch, talking about something serious.

"Hey, y'all. What's up?" Cyborg asked as he and Beast Boy joined them. Cyborg sat on the couch while Beast Boy sat on the floor, facing all of them.

"The Mayor isn't happy." Robin got straight to the point. "Seven civilians were put into intensive care, and a few dozen more had other, less severe injuries, say a broken arm or leg." Beast Boy immediately perked up at the statement.

"She didn't kill anyone?" he asked, voice full of hope. Robin shook his head, and Beast Boy sighed in relief. That was a big load off his chest. She hadn't killed anyone! He didn't know what would have happened to her if she had. Hordes of people would likely come to the tower, torches and pitchforks in hand, demanding her head. But, she hadn't killed anyone! Beast Boy ran his hands through his hair as he felt some of his tension leave.

"When someone called in the tip about explosions, apparently they did recognize Raven, but left that information out from fear that we were somehow involved."

"What? How could they think that!" Cyborg asked offended, voicing Beast Boy's very thoughts.

"I don't know, Cy. But, after seeing Raven the way she was, I can understand them being scared." Robin replied, and Beast Boy's ears drooped at the thought of the people Raven fought every day to protect being afraid of her.

"Is that why they weren't running?" he asked quietly. "They were too afraid?"

"No." Robin replied with a dejected sigh. "Apparently, whenever someone in the area would try to run, she would blast them a few dozen feet away. That's how so many were injured." Beast Boy's ears drooped further at the notion.

"I do not understand what this thing was after." Starfire said confused, worry evident in her voice and expression.

"Yeah." Cyborg agreed. "If she wanted to kill people she would have."

"I don't know." Robin replied, thinking deeply. "I guess we won't know until Raven wakes up. How is she, by the way?"

"Her vitals are normal." Cyborg replied with a shrug. "Though she was just unconscious at first, she's now put herself into one of her coma-like trances."

"Hmm..." Robin thought some more, entering a thinking pose.

"Please? Friend Raven will be alright, yes?" Starfire asked frantically. "I could not bear it if she did not wake up!"

"She'll be alright, Star." Everyone turned to Beast Boy at the certainty in his voice, almost like he was daring them to say otherwise. 'She has to be." he added inwardly.

"But, how-"

"Green Bean's right. Like I told him, Raven's tough girl. She'll pull through." Cyborg said reassuringly, and Starfire nodded, though not completely convinced.

"They're right, Star. I suppose all we can do now is go to sleep and wait for her to wake up." Robin said standing. Starfire followed suit and hugged him tightly.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were the first ones to leave the main room, Robin still trying to comfort Starfire.

"I'll go check on Rae before heading off to bed." Cyborg said, but Beast Bot stopped him.

"No, I'll do it." Cyborg looked at him for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright. See ya tomorrow, B." the metal man said before heading off to his room.

"See ya." Beast Boy responded, and then he turned in the opposite direction and headed for the med bay. His mind was swimming with thoughts of the fight as he went, and, even though he was exhausted, he wasn't sure if his brain would allow him to sleep that night. Maybe if he saw Raven again...

He finally got to the med bay and punched in the code. The door opened, and Beast Boy's heart stopped at seeing the heart monitor flat-lining! He ran into the room... only to find it empty. He heaved a sigh of relief as he waited for his heart rate to return to normal. Then turned around, turned into a cheetah, and bolted out the door, all exhaustion forgotten.

He was at Raven's room in no time and knocked, trying not to seem hasty. There was no reply. He knocked again, only to be met with the same silence. He sniffed the air and could tell she had been there, but then she had left. He followed the scent for a bit and then realized where it was heading. He turned into a cheetah once more and sprinted through the halls. He finally reached the stairs that led to the roof, hastily bounded up them, and swung the door open.

There she was! He breathed another sigh of relief. But... something seemed wrong... She wasn't meditating. She was standing at the edge of the roof, hood drawn, and wore a traveling pack! At his entrance she had turned to face him, and he could see the turmoil in her violet eyes, something she didn't let show normally.

"Raven?" he asked concerned, but she didn't answer. "You were going to leave? Without telling us?" She looked down and pinched the bridge of her nose. No one was supposed to find her!

"I have to leave Beast Boy. I have to straighten this out." she replied, her voice maintaining it's monotonous nature.

"But you _don't_ have to _leave_!" Beast Boy shot back, running up to stand in front of her.

"Beast Boy-"

"No!" he interrupted her. "You think you have to do this by yourself, but you _don't_! I thought we went through this last time! You're not alone, Raven. You have friends, and we wanna' help." She did nothing but stare at him for a moment, and he stared right back, defiantly. She then sighed and removed her hood.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" she finally asked quietly, and he grinned his lopsided, one-fanged grin in response. That meant she was staying, right? Beast Boy was then beyond surprised when she wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. It wasn't a shy hug. It was more like the hug she had given him after the Malichor incident. Only, this time, Beast Boy returned it.

"Thank you for your concern, Garfield. It means a lot." she whispered in his ear, and Beast Boy felt a shiver run down his spine at her closeness. Then his eyes shot open as he felt a sudden sharp pain in his neck before blacking out.

_Raven Centered POV:_

She sighed as she caught Beast Boy's weight, stopping him from face-planting.

'I'm sorry, but I can't let you guys get involved... not again.' she thought as she sat him on the roof.

She hugged him tightly once more and laid him down gently. Then she stood, drew her hood up, and took off, flying towards the mountains.

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**AN:** I'm having a lot of fun writing this... but I'm neglecting my homework this weekend, so I should go do that. :p I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Please review if you have the time.


	4. Taking the Initiative

**AN:** Sorry about the errors in the last chapter. For some reason, it didn't save my changes, so that was my first draft. It's updated now.

To FelynxTiger: I know, mwuahahaaa! Though, I swear there's a rhyme and a reason to what I'm doing. And thanks, BB's feelings in this are really important.

To missyrod: Thanks, I try. Hope you enjoy chapter 4!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

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_Cyborg Centered POV:_

Cyborg angrily shut off the heart monitor. How dare it scare him like that! Too bad it was so expensive, or he probably would have smashed it into tiny, unidentifiable pieces! He had woken up after four hours of sleep to check on Raven, and had walked into the med bay only to receive the same scare as Beast Boy the previous night, though Cyborg didn't know that.

"Really, couldn't she have turned it off when she got up?" Cyborg grumbled to himself, not appreciating the near heart-attack. He then decided to head to the main room for some breakfast, something especially meaty today. He glanced inside BB's room as he passed, only to do a double take. Beast Boy wasn't in his room. But, he was _never_ up this early! Deciding it was nothing to worry about, Cyborg continued on his way.

'Maybe B couldn't sleep." he thought to himself. Beast Boy was probably in the main room, distracting his mind on the GameStation. Boy, would he be happy to hear Rae was awake!

"Yo, B, I got good news!" Cyborg said excitedly as the main doors swished open. "Rae's-" he stopped when he realized no one was in the room.

He blinked.

'That's odd. I wonder where he is." Cyborg thought, opening his arm scanner. He hit the locator button and saw Raven, Robin, and Starfire were in their rooms, but B... was on the roof?

'Huh. Wonder why he's up there.' Cyborg thought as he turned and left the room. Filling his stomach, or what passed as his stomach, could wait until after B heard the good news. In a few minutes Cyborg was climbing the stairs to the roof. Why did they have so many stairs, again? Finally he got to the top and opened the door, only to receive a second near-heart attack.

"B!" he yelled at the sight of Beast Boy lying unconscious on the ground, and he ran over to him. "Yo, B! Answer me, man!" he yelled kneeling next to his friend and shaking him. "B, wake up!" Beast Boy's green eyes flew open and he shot up into a sitting position.

"Wha- Where? Huh?" he asked, realizing where he was.

"Yo, B, what happened? Why are you unconscious up here?" After a short pause, Beast Boy groaned and lowered his head, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Aagh! Why would she do that?" he asked infuriated, putting his forehead in his hands.

"Why would who do what?" Cyborg was really starting to get worried now.

"Raven!" Beast Boy, exclaimed, and the metal man's eyes widened once more. "She knocked me out and took off!"

"She wasn't..." Cyborg couldn't finish the question, but Beast Boy got his meaning.

"No, she's Raven, but she seems to think she has to handle this alone!" He growled as he began clutching fistfuls of his forest green hair in his hands. "Duude! This is so not cool!" he complained in his Beast Boy-esque manner. Cyborg understood the seriousness of the situation and opened his arm communicator. If Raven left her communicator in her room, they had almost no way of tracking her.

"Yo, Rob, we got a situation." he said once the boy wonder picked up.

"What's up?" a tired Robin asked, confused at hearing Beast Boy ranting angrily in the background.

"Can you meet us in the main room? And, wake up Starfire too." the metal man responded.

"Um, sure. See ya in a bit, I guess." Robin replied, and the transmission was cut.

"C'mon, B, we gotta go tell the others about this." Cyborg said to a still rambling Beast Boy, and Beast Boy stopped mid-sentence. The irritated teen huffed and marched over to the door of the stairs and began stomping down them in an exaggerated fashion, flailing as he continued to rant. Cyborg sweat-dropped and followed behind at a safe distance.

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

Beast Boy sat fuming on the couch, awaiting the arrival of Starfire and Robin. Beast Boy couldn't believe she had done that! He had told her that they all wanted to help, and what did she do? She used the Vulcan Neck Pinch on him and took off! He doubted she'd even seen Star Trek to get the reference! Ugh, the nerve!

As Beast Boy continued to fume, Robin finally entered, followed closely by Starfire, still in her light pink pajamas—littered with pictures of sleeping kittens—and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Robin asked, curious to know about the early wake up call. He then noticed Beast Boy pouting on the couch. "What's up with him?" he asked with a short laugh.

"Raven left." Cyborg said seriously, and Starfire gasped, all thoughts of being tired gone. Robin's smile vanished.

"What?" Starfire asked quietly, not believing what she was hearing.

"When?" demanded the boy wonder, no longer in a joking mood, and it was Beast Boy who answered.

"Last night." he grumbled from his seat on the couch. "She pulled a Spock on me and took off."

"But, why would she do that!... And, what is a 'Spock'?" demanded a overwrought Starfire, but Beast Boy didn't answer; he hated the answer enough voicing it once.

"It means she knocked him out, so he wouldn't stop her." Cyborg clarified, crestfallen.

Robin sighed audibly and moved over to sit down on the couch as well, thinking deeply as he stared out the window. He was probably thinking about what they should do. Well, Beast Boy knew what _he_ would do.

"I'm going after her." he said suddenly, snapping Robin out of his reverie, and it took the boy wonder a moment to react to the abrupt statement.

"Beast Boy... As much as I want to find Raven, we can't leave Jump City the way it is. We have a job to do for the people of this city, and they're already starting to think we've abandoned them. If we leave now, it'll be like putting up a clearance sale poster for every baddie around." Robin told the green changeling.

"I know that. But, strangely enough, I don't care." Robin was about to snap at Beast Boy's words, but Beast Boy continued before he could. "Raven is one of us. She's a part of this team, and, more importantly, she's our friend! We should have noticed something was wrong, and we didn't! Now she's out their somewhere, probably in danger, and we're just gonna' ignore that! No way! Not if there's anything I can say about it! So, I'm going out there! I'm gonna find her, knock some sense into her stubborn head, and bring her back, so we can help!" Near the beginning of his rant, he had gotten up and started pacing, motioning wildly as he spoke. The room became deathly quiet once his little rant was over, all of them staring at him with dumbstruck expressions on their faces. Starfire was the first to recover from her shock and moved to stand next to Beast Boy.

"I agree whole-heartedly with Beast Boy. If we had been more attentive, we would have seen this tragedy coming before it occurred. However, because we were not and the first opportunity to assist Raven has passed us by, it is our obligation to take this one." she said calmly, seeming and sounding every bit the princess she was born as. Beast Boy beamed at her and then turned into a little cat and leapt into her arms. She giggled as he rubbed his cheek against her abdomen, purring loudly.

"But-" Robin began but was cut off by Starfire.

"If it were me you would not hesitate." she said simply, and Robin's words died on his lips. They simply stared at one another for a moment, seeming as though they were having some sort of silent conversation. Cyborg and Beast Boy looked between the two like two kids who happened to be in the room while their parents were arguing. Finally, Robin sighed.

"Alright." he said, and Starfire and Beast Boy, now standing next to her in human form, began cheering loudly whilst jumping up and down in a jovial manner.

"But," Robin said loudly as to be heard over the cheering, and the pair stopped immediately. "Someone has to stay and protect the city. We can't risk people taking advantage of our absence or risk Raven returning the way she was last night." Starfire and Beast Boy nodded in understanding. After all, they didn't want anything to happen to the city either. "Since it's not really a one person job and we can't fly, Cyborg and I will stay here while you two look for Raven." Beast Boy's face lit up once more and he whooped, thrusting a fist into the air. Starfire squeaked with joy, clapping her hands and hopping up and down in a child-like manner; just because she was a princess, didn't mean she _always_ had to act like one, right?. The alien princess then bounded forward and hugged Robin tightly, most likely clogging his wind pipe and maybe crushing a few bones.

"S-Starfire-" he gasped through breaths, and she released him with a gasp of her own. She smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, while Robin coughed, trying to catch his breath that had literally been squeezed out of him. Beast Boy could sympathize. Those hugs were brutal!

His thoughts then turned to their journey ahead. Raven was already over four hours ahead of them. When flying constantly, that could put her in another city by now. Though, in all actuality, she would probably head as far into the middle of nowhere as possible to reduce the number of casualties if things went wrong. But, the changeling didn't care how far she had managed to travel! He and Star were gonna' find her, and that was that!

Beast Boy packed anything they might need on their trip, which, in this case, meant mostly food. After running through the inventory again in his head and finding no mistakes or missing items, he hurried off to Raven's room. Entering, he looked around for anything she might need. Her books? Even if she did need one of those, he had no way of telling what they said, and therefore couldn't know if she needed them. Her knickknacks? Definitely not. Though, when he though about it, some of them might be, and probably were, magic, but trial and error seemed like a bad idea at the moment. Her wardrobe? She'd kill him if he went through that; enough said. Deciding there was nothing he could do there, Beast Boy turned to leave, but then something on her nightstand caught his eye. Her magic mirror!

"_The mirror you found is for meditation._" he remembered her saying when she came to get him and Cyborg out of her mind. Running over, he picked it up, careful not to look into it; he learned his lesson the first time.

Even though he could probably talk to her sooner if he used it, now that he knew where it lead, it felt like invading her personal space. No, it was more than that. Someone's mind should be the one thing that should never be taken away from them or invaded; it should remain unquestioningly their own. That was one of the reasons this situation infuriated the changeling so much. No one should ever be in danger of having their mind stolen, and, it seemed to happen to Raven on a semi-regular basis! It just wasn't right! He would help her fix this, no matter what!

Unsure of why she had left the magical device behind, Beast Boy placed it inside a pouch in his backpack that was farthest from any food. He would bring it to her just in case she needed it.

'Maybe she was in too much of a hurry and forgot to grab it.' the changeling thought to himself as he exited her room, now feeling the possible bodily injury he would likely receive when she discovered he had entered her room without permission was worth it.

Beast Boy then quickly headed for the roof, they had already given Raven over another hour's head start by gathering supplies. When he got there, he found Starfire and Cyborg but no Robin. But, when he saw Starfire, he had to laugh. She had changed her attire, something she didn't do very often. Taking everything she did to the extreme level, she had changed into a full blown safari outfit, even the hat!

"Wow, Star, nice outfit!" the green changeling greeted with a laugh.

"Yes! I am very excited to partake in the exploring of Earth's wilderness while we search for Raven!" The alien girl replied cheerily. Then seeing the changeling's amusement, she became confused."Am I not dressed appropriately for such a task?"

"No, it's not that." Beast Boy said, trying to stifle his giggles. "I just never thought I'd see you wearing something like that!"

"Why is that?" Starfire asked, genuinely confused, and Beast Boy paused.

"Uh... I don't know, really." he replied, thoughtfully scratching his chin. It was actually a very 'Starfire' thing to do, now that he thought about it.

"Anyway, where's Robin?" he asked, getting back on topic.

"Not here." Cyborg answered, an amused expression on his face from watching the previous interaction.

"Yes, he has informed me that he will be joining us shortly." Starfire added.

"What? He wants us to wait even longer? But, we don't even now how big of a lead she's got on us already! What's he doing, anyway?"

"I am not sure. When I knocked on the door of his room of investigation and informed him of our 'ready' status, his reply was simply that he would join us shortly." Beast Boy thought for a moment. What could he be doing? Deciding he could put this time to good use, the changeling then shifted into a bloodhound and started searching for Raven's scent.

_Robin Centered POV:_

"I've heard rumors, Richard." said the CEO of Wayne Industries over the video feed. Robin stayed silent, waiting for him to elaborate. Though, he was fairly certain he and Bruce were on the same page. "They're saying one of your members attacked the city." Bingo. Even though Bruce's voice was calm like it always was, Robin knew he was troubled by the situation; they all were.

"Yes and no." Robin replied cryptically, and Bruce actually seemed confused by that, if his slightly narrowed eyes were any indication. "It's kind of hard to explain if you don't know her. But," he continued before Bruce could say anything, "she wasn't doing it of her free will."

"You'll need to elaborate on that." Bruce said resting his elbows on the arms of his chair and clasping his hands in front of his mouth. "Who was it?"

"Raven." Robin replied, and Bruce nodded.

"Ah, I remember her." he said thoughtfully; he had met the Titans a few times over the years when the Justice League would send him to check on their team.

"Yes, well... her past is complicated to say the least. Who among us doesn't have one of those, right?" Bruce nodded in understanding. "Lets just say she's not exactly human and that certain... things can gain control over her because of that."

"Is this anything like the Trigon incident you told me about?"

"It seems like it, yes." the boy wonder replied, and Bruce went back to thinking.

"Casualties?"

"None, thankfully. Quite a few were injured, but they all pulled through." Robin was still thankful for that and likely always would be. He didn't even want to think of the consequences otherwise.

"That's good to hear." Bruce said relieved. "What's her condition?"

"Honestly, we have no idea." Bruce raised an eyebrow at the comment. "She was stable, but, when she woke up, she left. Beast Boy caught her in the act. But, she knocked him out, so he wouldn't stop her or follow her." Bruce sighed.

"Troublesome..." was his only reply as he rubbed his forehead, likely trying to relieve a headache. "What are you going to do about it? We can't risk her turning again in the middle of nowhere. We would have no way of knowing where she would head if that were the case." Containment. That was always a first priority with Bruce Wayne.

"I know." Robin replied with an inaudible sigh. Truth be told, he and Bruce were very much alike in that area, whether that be a good thing or a bad thing. Most of the time, it seemed like both. "We're sending Starfire and Beast Boy to go look for her, while Cyborg and I stay to protect the city. If she comes back the way she was last night, we'll be here to stop her. Though," he added, pinching the bridge of his nose, "we didn't stand a chance against her last night. If it weren't for Beast Boy, who knows what would have happened. We'll have to come up with a plan in case that _does_ happen."

"Agreed, though, if that's the case, why isn't Beast Boy staying?" Bruce asked critically, and Robin let out a forced laugh.

"Despite him being the only one capable of tracking her at this point, even if I did tell him to stay, he'd leave the first chance he got." the boy wonder admitted, and Bruce's eyebrow rose once again. This time, even_ he_ seemed amused as the corners of his mouth were curved slightly upward.

"The quiet empath and the loud jokester, huh?" Robin laughed lightly again, this time for real.

"Yeah, it seems like it, at least from Beast Boy's end. I'm not sure about Raven's. She can read other people but won't let others read her." Bruce nodded, but then his serious demeanor returned.

"If the situation changes for the worst, let me know. I'll see what I can do." This time, Robin nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. He knew everyone was hoping it wouldn't come to that, but that didn't mean it wouldn't.

"Understood." the boy wonder replied, and he knew this conversation was coming to an end.

"And, Richard," he raised his eyebrows for Bruce to continue, "Be careful." Even though his voice hadn't changed, Robin understood the underlying sentiment.

"Thanks." he replied, and the feed went blank.

_Starfire centered POV:_

"Hey, guys, sorry that took so long." Robin apologized as he joined the anxious trio on the roof.

"What took you so long! What were you doing, applying your hair gel?" Beast Boy asked irritatedly

"I received a phone call from a certain Dark Knight." Robin replied stoically, not taking Beast Boy's outburst personally. "He's trusting you two to find her."

"No, he's trusting us to contain her." Beast Boy spat back, and, when Robin's eyes widened slightly, Starfire knew he was correct. "He doesn't care about _her_!" They were all surprised by the outburst since Batman was pretty much Beast Boy's idol!

"Beast Boy," Robin began evasively, "you know, first and foremost, we have a job to protect the people of the world."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but where is it said we have to leave behind the people we care about to do so?" A small smile graced Starfire's lips at his comment. So far, she and Cyborg had stayed silent, to see how this would play out, and Starfire knew both Robin and Beast Boy understood what the other was saying. Their duty came with a high price at certain times. That, however, did not mean they could to do nothing to lower the cost or try to erase it altogether.

"Besides, Beast Boy," Robin began with a teasing smirk playing across his face, "you seem to be worrying about her enough for all of us." Beast Boy caught his meaning if the blush on his face was any indication. He then grumbled something about perceptive, spiky-haired super heroes, and Starfire giggled to herself.

"Please, we must hurry now if we wish to find Raven soon." the alien princess said, getting the topic back on track. As Beast Boy had said, she already had a large head start.

"Alright, and don't you two worry about things here." Robin said assuredly.

"Yeah, me and Bird Brain got things covered on this end." Cyborg said teasingly, and Robin glared at him amiably while Beast Boy chuckled, amused. He then nodded, changed shape, and took off, in the form of a raven, Starfire noted with a smile. She then gave both Cyborg and Robin a hug, giving Robin a kiss on the cheek as well, before hurriedly flying after the changeling.

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**AN:** Okay, four chapters done! Hope I got the personalities of the characters right. Please review if you have time.

P.S. Ravens supposedly have a really good sense of smell, so Beast Boy won't need to change shape for this trip.

P.P.S: By the way, here's a link to a picture of BB and Rae that I drew, in case you're interrested: .com/?q=BBRae&order=9&offset=72#/d386xay


	5. The Search

**AN: **Luv ya guys! Here's a Valentine's Day gift: Chapter 5! I would have gotten it up earlier, but Mondays are hectic for me.

To Densharr: Thanks for the heads up! I forgot to specify his outburst as shocking because of that. It's fixed now. By the way, that was a _really _fast review! :D

ToB00K Freak: Thanks! I knew Raven had to knock Beast Boy out, and I immediately thought 'Spock!' I couldn't resist!

To PolarPurple: Here's the next chapter. And, it's 'ette', even if I'm not exactly girly. But, who doesn't like a good fight scene, right?

To FelynxTiger: Glad you liked it. I'm trying really hard to get their personalities right, and I can totally see Starfire doing something like that!

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_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

They had been flying for hours and had long since passed the outskirts of Jump City. It was easily noon now, so Beast Boy reluctantly began lowering his elevation. Starfire followed suit, and they both landed in a clearing in the forest.

"Is something wrong?" Starfire asked confused, setting down both of their backpacks; since Beast Boy was turning into a bird, he couldn't exactly carry his. He still felt bad about that.

"No, I just figured we should take a short break." the changeling responded stretching his sore arms.

"Oh, okay." Starfire said relieved, and she set the two backpacks down as Beast Boy flopped down on the ground, staring up at the sky. Luckily, Raven seemed to be traveling in a straight line, likely trying to get as far from Jump City in as little time possible.

Starfire was currently wondering around the clearing with child-like curiosity. She wasn't as tired as him, if at all. After all, she could travel between galaxies by flight. Beast Boy then laughed when she took a magnifying glass out of one of her pockets and used it to look at some ants on the ground.

"Make sure you don't shine the light that makes on them; they'll burn." the changeling said light-heartedly, and she 'eep'ed, nearly dropping the magnifying glass when she freaked out. Apparently she had been doing that, probably without meaning to.

Beast Boy the turned his attention back to the sky. It was incredibly blue today, speckled with fluffy white clouds. The changeling sighed audibly, and Starfire turned to him, waiting for him to say what was on his mind.

"It sure is a nice day today, isn't it?" he asked quietly, and she too looked up at the sky.

"Agreed." the alien girl replied with a small smile, but then it vanished. "I too wish she could be enjoying it." Beast Boy sighed again at the comment and closed his eyes. Then he stood up, determined.

"Alright, I'm ready when you are." he announced, and Starfire nodded, standing as well. She picked up the backpacks, and they both took off again.

"Okay, _now_ something's wrong." Beast Boy said after he and Starfire landed again a few hours later.

"What is it?" Starfire asked worriedly, and Beast Boy hesitated, trying to make sure he wasn't going crazy. He turned into a bloodhound and started sniffing the area. After a few moments, though, he came to the same conclusion as before.

"I can't find her scent anymore, something in this area is covering it!" he said apprehensively, returning to Starfire's side, and she gasped.

"What? Can you tell what is obscuring her scent?" the alien girl asked frantically, and Beast Boy thought for a moment.

"Well, don't hold me to this, but... it smells like some kind of lizard. Though, not like any lizard I've ever smelled before." the green teen responded thoughtfully. "It's all over this area, and..." He hesitated once more, completely befuddled by what he was smelling. "They smell kind of like Raven too." he said confused.

"But, how is that possible?" Starfire asked, now as confused as Beast Boy, and he simply shrugged.

"I have no idea, but that's what I'm smelling." None of this was making any sense. Why did they smell like Raven?

"What do we do?" asked the alien princess, looking around anxiously.

"Looks like we gotta' go by foot." Beast Boy replied with a sigh; this would take them a lot longer now. "I can still tack her, but not with anything that can fly. Not with whatever's filling this area." Starfire nodded in understanding.

"Then we should begin walking, yes?"

"Yeah." Beast Boy answered before morphing into a bloodhound again and following the strongest scent that belonged to Raven; that one was their best bet.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

"Alright, we should stop here for the night." Beast Boy said stopping in a clearing. The sun had set about an hour ago, and they were now traveling by moonlight and the green light from one of Starfire's starbolts.

"Agreed, if we are to continue searching, we must eat and rest." Starfire said setting their packs down.

"Yeah." Beast Boy agreed and they quickly set out to gather wood for a fire. Once the fire was going, they set their sleeping bags around it and got some of their food out. Starfire with some of her long lasting home food while Beast Boy had some bread and a drink Starfire had heard was supposed to give the nutrient count of a meal. Starfire then looked in her pack in hopes of finding the mustard she had packed, only to realize she had forgotten it. Her mood saddened immediately, and she put the pack aside dejectedly.

"Here, Star." Beast Boy said suddenly, and the alien girl looked at him to see him holding a small container of mustard out to her!. Her face lit up instantly as she gasped with glee.

"My utmost thanks, friend Beast Boy!" she cheered, puling him into one of the bone crushing hugs she was so famous, or infamous, for.

"Heh. No sweat." He replied once she released him, and she began happily slurping the tangy beverage, which she had learned wasn't normally one, through a straw. It was very delicious, and she was very thankful Beast Boy had brought it for her! Why human's found it disgusting to drink still escaped her understanding. Why did they make it if they were not going to enjoy it fully?

"How do you think she's doing?" the green changeling asked suddenly, and she turned to him. She had never seen him look so melancholy before, and the sight made her place her mustard on the ground. She refused to enjoy herself while her friend was feeling down.

"When she left," he continued, fidgeting with the hem of his sleeping bag, "her bag didn't look large enough to carry any food."

"Raven is a strong and intelligent individual." Starfire said reassuringly. "I know she would not have left without sustenance if it was necessary that she bring any." Beast Boy seemed a little alleviated by the thought. A lot about Raven was still a mystery to the Tameranian girl. She seemed to be able to eat when she felt like it, but she did not seem to need it as frequently or in as large quantities as the rest of them required. Perhaps it had something to do with the chakra stone on her forehead. Then Starfire remembered something she had been wanting to talk to Beast Boy about.

"Tell me, Beast Boy," Starfire began curiously, and he nodded for her to continue. "Do you like Raven?" Beast Boy blinked.

"Of course I do. I mean, we're all a fam-"

"As more than a friend?" Beast Boy stopped talking immediately. He opened his mouth a few times to speak, only to close it again when nothing came out. He looked kind of like a fish, Starfire noted amused. "I do not mean to put you on the spot. I merely wish to understand." Beast Boy sat silently for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, and Starfire waited patiently for his answer.

"Yeah, I do." he said finally, and Starfire smiled widely. "I know it's odd. After all, we're almost nothing alike." Beast Boy continued with a laugh. "But, I've always heard the heart chooses what it will, so..." He paused, seeming to be thinking as he stared into the fire, so Starfire waited patiently again.

"Honestly, I think it's a lot more than 'like'. I'm not sure when things changed, and it's not like it was all at once. I mean, it wasn't like I woke up one morning and 'BAM' she was suddenly there. It was more of a gradual thing over the years." Starfire nodded in understanding.

"It is good to hear you admit it. I am told that is generally the first step to such things." she said with a warm smile.

"Well, technically I think the first step is _finding_ Raven." Beast Boy joked, and Starfire giggled.

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

Beast Boy woke with a start and looked around at the trees surrounding them. His instincts had kicked in while he was sleeping and were currently screaming at him to get up. He jumped up and hurried over to Starfire.

"Star. Star!" he whispered urgently to the still slumbering Tameranian girl. She shifted and groggily looked up at him. "There's something out there!" Starfire didn't need to be told twice. She quickly got out of her sleeping bag and stood back to back with beast boy, scanning the area as her eyes and hands glowed green.

"Do you know what it is we are up against?" she whispered back.

"Do you remember me saying I smelled lizards?" She nodded. "Well, it seems they- Ahh!" he screamed as a knife suddenly sailed past his face and dug itself deep into a nearby tree. Starfire's eyes widened in shock; she had instincts of her own, and the were itching at her right now. She immediately picked Beast Boy up and flew a dozen feet into the air just as dozens more knives landed right where they had been standing.

"Wow, thanks, Star!" Beast Boy said gratefully as he looked at where they would have been made into swiz-cheese, and she smiled brightly. They both then looked down to see their attackers exit from the trees, and both their eyes widened in shock.

They were lizards of a sort, but they walked on two legs, standing like people, probably about as tall as Beast Boy. They wore steel armor and carried an assortment of weapons from flails with deadly spikes to serrated swords. The thing that tipped Beast Boy off as to what they were were their dragon-like heads and the large wings on their backs.

"What are those!" Starfire asked shocked.

"Draconians! What the heck!" Draconians weren't real! What was going on? There were over a dozen of them down their! The draconians then took of, flying towards the stunned pair of super heroes.

"Move!" Beast Boy hollered, turning into a bird, and he and Starfire flew in separate directions. Beast Boy evaded a few of their attacks as Starfire threw a flurry of starbolts at them. Beast Boy dodged a few more swings from the weapons that would easily kill him and dived towards the ground. As he landed, he turned into a triceratops and jumped at the group of seven following him. They scattered to avoid his attack and surrounded the ten ton beast as he landed hard on the ground. Feeling he needed something more dangerous, the changeling then shifted into a tyrannosaurus rex. He bit at one of the draconians flying near his head, but it avoided his attack. Beast Boy then roared in pain as three of them dug their weapons into his hide from the sides. He hit one of them with his tail, and it crashed into a nearby tree, felling it. One down.

"Ahh!" Beast Boy cried out when he turned back into human form, holding his injured sides in pain. Okay, being such a large target was obviously _not_ a good idea! As they advanced on him once more, the changeling turned into a leopard and pounced at the nearest draconian. The dragon kin swerved to the side and swung it's sword down at Beast Boy. The changeling whacked the blade aside with one of his large, clawed paws and scratched the draconian's leg. The draconian fell to it's knees with a hiss of pain, and Beast Boy shifted into a gorilla, and threw it into two of the other approaching draconians. He then shifted back into a leopard and evaded a heavy mace as it smashed the ground right next to him.

Meanwhile, Starfire was having issues of her own. She had managed to injure the wings of two of her eight pursuers, but the other six were proving difficult, especially in the low lighting. She evaded a deadly flail one of them swung at her, spun horizontally, and hit it downward like she was spiking a volley ball, sending it crashing through the canopy of leaves below. She then dove to avoid attacks from two of her other pursuers and headed towards Beast Boy, who was fighting a similar group in the form of a leopard. At the sight of his bleeding sides, Starfire grew furious. How dare they harm one of her friends! She halted in mid-dive, greatly surprising her chasers. Most of them swerved and avoided her, but one wasn't so lucky. Just for good measure, Starfire flew backwards at the last moment, adding more force to the impact. She then threw the dazed draconian downward with such force that it hit two of the party attacking Beast Boy, leaving all three unconscious in a small crater.

She smirked when the four who had flown past her backed off slightly at her show of strength. But, instead of attacking them, she continued her dive and landed right next to a panting Beast Boy and punched the ground, creating a large rift that scattered three of the attackers. She then picked up one of the large boulders she had just made and threw it at their still airborne attackers, sending them flying off in all directions to avoid the heavy object. Meanwhile, Beast Boy turned into a pachycephalosaurus(bone headed dinosaur) and charged one of their ground assailants while it fled from Starfire's ground rift attack. He rammed into it, throwing it back to crash into a tree, and turned to charge towards the others. He then saw one of them aiming something that looked like a blowgun in Starfire's direction and thundered towards it. Just as it got the shot off, he reared his head and smashed the draconian to the side, probably breaking it's jaw. The dart flew harmlessly wide!

'Boo-yah!' Beast Boy started to cheer internally, but then he turned and saw two darts sticking out of Starfire's shoulder! He looked up to see one of their airborne attackers carrying a similar blowgun. Beast Boy quickly shifted into a cheetah, and darted to Starfire's side as she collapsed to one knee.

"Starfire!" he yelled worriedly as he knelt next to her in human form. She ripped the darts out and threw them to the side, grimacing as she held her head.

"Something... inside them... C-can't focus." she managed to say through clenched teeth. Beast Boy cursed their luck as he looked around to see their remaining nine pursuers were advancing towards them in a circle on the ground. He shifted into a gorilla and roared at them, standing protectively next to Starfire. The draconians saw his threat as the bluff it was and continued advancing. With Starfire out, Beast Boy couldn't possibly hope to defeat the remaining nine. He prepared himself anyway.

The group then charged at once, weapons raised, and Beast Boy punched the nearest one as soon as it was close enough. He then turned and swung his arm in a wide arc over Starfire, scattering the three who had intended to attack her. There were too many of them! While he had attacked the first four, the remaining five had surrounded him. He covered Starfire protectively in the hopes that she would live even if he didn't and waited for the fatal blow to come.

...One...Two... Where was it? He opened his eyes and saw he and Starfire were surrounded by a shield of black energy!

'Raven!' Beast Boy cheered in his head and he looked around, trying to find her. He couldn't see her, but he could see that the draconians were backing away from the sphere, looking around worriedly. 'Hah! She's obviously pwned you guys before!'

"W-we have found her!" Starfire said cheerily, albeit a little tired, as she stood next to Beast Boy who was now back in human form. Raven then jumped out from the trees behind one of the draconians and heel-kicked it in the back of the head, forcing it to face-plant. She flipped off of its head and attempted to kick the one right next to her I a similar fashion, but she landed harmlessly on it's raised arm. It swung its arm in an attempt to throw her backwards, but she back-flipped and landed on the ground only two feet from it. It then dropped it's weapon, something that confused Beast Boy greatly, and threw a punch at her. Raven simply strafed and jumped, throwing her knee into it's face. When they both landed, the draconian on its back, the other draconians in the area turned and fled, quickly followed by the one Raven had just attacked once it scrambled to its feet. Raven Starfire and Beast Boy were now alone in the clearing.

Beast Boy looked around as the sphere of black energy surrounding Starfire and himself vanished. The changeling looked back at Raven to see her lower her hood, and she turned to face them, a stern expression on her face.

* * *

**AN:** Mwa-ha-haa! You don't get to read what happens next yet! I'll try getting it up soon, though. Hope you liked the chapter! Please review if you have time.


	6. Complications

**AN:** This is definitely the longest chapter yet. It's nine pages, while I think the first was four, or something. Also, keep in mind that the point of views are centered, not singled out. I may explain some things other characters are feeling, even if they aren't the point of view's focus.

To FelynxTiger: Glad to hear it. I love writing fight scenes! And, Starfire's, Beast Boy's, and Raven's styles are so different and unique that it makes it really fun!

To TheMonkeyFuzz: Thanks, that makes me all warm and toasty inside.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

"Raven!" Beast Boy ran forward, engulfing her in a tight hug. Though greatly surprised, she returned it lightly, her stern expression softening momentarily. The green changeling then stepped back, and her expression became aggravated once again, Beast Boy's now mirroring hers.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Raven demanded angrily.

"What do we think _we're _doing here?" Beast Boy shot back, matching her anger with his own. "What do you think _you're_ doing here?"

"You can't hold an argument by simply repeating whatever I say and changing the inflexion!" Raven snapped irritably.

"Oh, _can't_ I hold an argument by simply repeating whatever you say and changing the inflexion?" Beast Boy asked back smugly, greatly enjoying this, even if it could prove detrimental to his health.

"Beast Boy!" Raven growled, and he smirked. He was totally winning! Though, what he was winning, he wasn't sure.

"Be-" he almost repeated, but Raven growled again, her eyes glowing white, so the changeling stopped mid-sentence. "Sorry, guess I got carried away." he apologized sheepishly, rubbing his neck. But, the action put a strain on his injured sides, causing him to grimace and put his arm back down.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked again through clenched teeth.

"Well, what do you _think_ we're doing here?" Beast Boy asked earnestly, drawing another growl from the empath. He then sweat-dropped and let out a nervous laugh. "Sorry, that one was an accident."

"Friend Beast Boy and I have come to offer any assistance we may be able to give you in this endeavor." Starfire interrupted before he could anger Raven more, now standing next to the pair. Her tone lacked it's usual mirth due to the blowgun darts. Beast Boy's eyes widened. Blowgun darts!

"Raven, Starfire was hit with something!" Beast Boy began frantically, and Raven's anger vanished as she turned to Starfire. "I don't know what it was bu-"

"Actually, the effects have already begun to fade." Starfire interrupted him calmly. "It would seem that whatever was in those darts was not meant for those of my kind. I should be alright soon." Beast Boy wasn't completely convinced, and he could tell Raven wasn't either. But, it kind of made sense, when he thought about it. If the darts had been made to affect humans, the effects would probably be less effective against Starfire.

"Are you sure?" Raven asked in her usual monotone, though both Starfire and Beast Boy knew she cared, even if her voice didn't show it. Starfire nodded.

"I am sure." she replied. Raven thought for a moment.

"Alright. Why don't you both come sit down for a health check-up anyways. I know Beast Boy needs it." the quiet empath said, moving over to their camp that had miraculously remained untouched for the most part. Their sleeping bags had been strewn about slightly, but that was pretty much the extent of the damage—and it was probably caused by them when they were getting up.

"Beast Boy, would you be able to start a fire while I check Starfire over?" Raven asked, and Beast Boy nodded, moving over to his pack and grabbing his flint and tinder. He then put what wood they had left in the fire pit and lit the fire as Raven spoke to Starfire.

"Where is the extent of the damage?" she asked, and Beast Boy turned to see Starfire point to her head. Raven nodded and motioned for her to sit down. "Sit." she said, her voice slightly kinder than it usually was. Beast Boy then returned his and Starfire's sleeping bags to their original places around the fire and sat down, Starfire following suit. Raven then stood behind her with her hands hovering over the sides of the alien girl's head, a blue aura surrounding them. It was odd and strangely poetic, Beast Boy realized, that the person who was so closely connected to darkness also held the ability to heal.

A few moments later, Raven lowered her hands, and Starfire sighed in relief.

"Many thanks, Raven! I am feeling much better now!" the alien girl said cheerily as she stood, and she wrapped Raven in a large hug, though apparently not one of her bone-crushing ones. This one, too, Raven returned lightly. Starfire then backed away, knowing Raven wasn't a huge fan of human contact.

"Don't mention it." Raven replied monotonously, though she bore a small smile on her face. She then turned to Beast Boy. They simply stared at each other for a moment, both seeming as though they wanted to say something. Beast Boy knew he did, but he wasn't sure where to start.

"I shall fetch more fire wood." Starfire announced suddenly, and she was off before either of them could respond. Beast Boy smiled thankfully, even if Starfire couldn't see it.

"Is it safe for her to be going out there right now?" he asked a little worried. "What if those draconians are still out there."

"As long as I'm here, they won't. They don't come near me." Raven stated simply.

"Wow, you've kicked their butts that much, huh?" Beast Boy asked with a huge grin on his face. Raven could be scary when you were fighting against her!

"No." she replied flatly, but she left it at that, explaining nothing to the perplexed changeling. If they weren't afraid of her, why didn't they go near her. They seemed eager enough to attack Starfire and himself. After a moment's pause, Raven moved over to Beast Boy.

"You'll need to remove your shirt." she said plainly, and he nearly fell over in surprise.

"What!" he asked flabbergasted, feeling his face heat up instantly.

"The wounds are on your torso, Beast Boy. You need to remove your shirt in order for me to look at them." she responded, her monotone sprinkled with patience. Beast Boy nodded nervously in understanding and moved to take his shirt off, but his injuries were making the task very difficult and _very_ painful. It had been fine during the battle when he had adrenaline pumping through him, but now he couldn't even lift his arms! Seeing his trouble, Raven knelt next to him and assisted him in removing his shirt, something that left the changeling even more flushed than before, giving his face an almost brown color. If Raven noticed, she said nothing and made no indication she had, something Beast Boy was very grateful for. She inspected his wounds for a moment, and Beast Boy's hands balled into fists on his knees as he sat, stiff as aboard. Her fingers were a little cold against his skin as she lightly ran them along the edges of the wounds, and Beast Boy felt a small shiver run up and down his spine from the tingling sensation the action sent through him. She then removed her hand and stood, and Beast Boy took in a shuddering breath, trying to calm himself down.

"I'll be right back." the empath said before heading into the woods. Though Beast Boy wasn't sure why she had, he was sort of thankful for it at the moment.

'Oh, smooth, Beast Boy! Real smooth!' he scolded himself, trying to get his blush under control; now was _not_ the time for that! He patted his face a few times with his hands, trying to make the blush go away, and instead focused on organizing his thoughts.

They had found Raven! When they had entered the forest and found that tracking her would be a lot harder, Beast Boy had expected to be looking for a few days. But, they hadn't even been gone for one whole day, yet! Wow... was that all it had been since Raven attacked Jump City? One day? It sure felt a lot longer. Said empath then re-appeared in the clearing and joined Beast Boy once again. He noticed she was carrying a few herbs in her hands.

'Oh, that's why she left.' the changeling thought as she set the herbs down next to him.

"Do you have a rag and water? She asked monotonously, and he pointed to his bag.

"Big pocket" he responded, and she searched through it for a moment. When she found the mentioned white cloth and water canteen, she returned to his side and knelt next to him again. She then carved a mortar and pestle out of the ground using her powers and began gently crushing some of her herbs, adding a little water. Once she was finished, she put her hand around his wrist, making him jump at the tingling sensation her touch sent through him again.

"Relax, Beast Boy. There's no need to be so tense." the empath said soothingly. He nodded and relaxed slightly, allowing her to rest his arm on her shoulder, so she could see the wounds better. That was easy for her to say. She wasn't the one shirtless! Though, in retrospect, she did have a really nice bod-

'No! Bad Beast Boy!' he scolded himself again, shaking his head to force the thoughts away. It was _so_ not the time!

"Why did you come?" the empath asked suddenly as she began cleaning his wounds with the wet rag, something that made him scrunch his nose in pain. Beast Boy looked at her surprised.

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked sincerely, and she looked into his eyes for a moment before averting her gaze and returning to her work. "Any of us would. You know that."

"Yes, but... I didn't knock any of them unconscious." Raven said quietly, and Beast Boy creased his brow in slight confusion. Was she really worried about that?

"I'm not mad at you." he responded earnestly, and even she seemed shocked by that.

"You aren't?"

"No, I'm not" he replied, shaking his head. "If anything, I'm angry that you felt that was your only option. Whatever this thing is must really have you freaked out." Raven looked away from his gaze again, now occupying herself with applying her herbal concoction to his wounds.

"Rae." he started concerned, but she seemed to be trying to ignore him in an attempt to drop the subject. "Rae." he said again, and this time she looked at him, strangely unangered by the nickname. "I know you're guarded, and I know _why_ you're guarded, even when it comes to something like this." he began, shifting so he could look at her easier. "You're afraid that if you open up you'll get hurt and that you'll hurt others. But... honestly, it's worth the risk. It's never a bad thing to have people worry about you. It means we care, and we want to help you carry this... whatever it is." She simply stared at him, digesting everything he was saying, and he felt his face slightly heat up again at her intense gaze. She then looked down and thought for a moment.

"I... thank you." Raven said earnestly, a slight blush on her own cheeks. She then quickly leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, her blush deepening greatly, and the fire flared wildly before dying back down. Did she really just-!

'Duuude!' Beast Boy thought ecstatically, though his blush now matched hers.

"Eep!" Came Starfire's unmistakable squeak, and they turned to see her hide behind a nearby tree, dropping the wood she was carrying in a haphazard pile on the ground.

"I swear, I have seen nothing!" came her muffled voice, and Beast Boy had to laugh, even if she had just interrupted one of the happiest moments of his life.

"It's alright, Star." he reassured her.

"No, I do not wish to intrude." She then stuck her hand out from behind the tree and shot a high powered starbolt at the discarded pile of wood, effectively disintegrating it.

"Oops! I seem to have burnt the pieces of discarded tree carcass beyond use. I shall fetch more." she said in a comically terribly acting voice. Beast Boy laughed again, only harder this time, which hurt his sides. Starfire then 'eeped' again when she was lifted from behind the tree, encased in black energy.

"I hate talking to trees." Raven said putting her down in front of them. "Can we just move on?" she asked, her usual monotone back, though her cheeks were still pink. Starfire nodded, and Raven went back to applying the herbal paste to Beast Boy's wounds.

"I don't suppose you brought bandages." she asked him, and he was about to say, no, when he remembered he actually _had_.

"Yeah, actually, I did." he said, surprised himself by his own forethought.

"Which pocket are they in?" Starfire asked kneeling in front of his pack.

"The left side pouch." Beast Boy responded, and she retrieved them. She then handed them to Raven and returned to her seat on her sleeping bag. Raven started wrapping the bandages around his torso, causing his face to flush yet again from her close proximity. Man, he just couldn't keep that under control! Real manly!

"So," the green teen started, trying to occupy his mind with anything other than Raven's closeness. "Will you come back with us?" Raven paused momentarily before returning to wrapping his torso.

"I can't." she responded, and he turned to look at her, nervousness forgotten. After all this, she still wasn't willing to let them help?

"But, why? I do not understand." Starfire said, mirroring Beast Boy's very thoughts.

"I mean, literally. I _can't_ come back" Raven clarified, and both of their expressions turned confused. She tied off the bandages and stood, moving over to his pack and returning them to their pouch. She then stood again, but she folded her arms and faced away from them.

"I won't lie. If I try to go back now, I won't make it." she said quietly, and Beast Boy's ears drooped. Were things really that bad? "She's tainted most of my mind already. It's taking almost all of my concentration just to keep her contained. She's been fairly quiet recently, but that won't remain the case for long."

"Please, friend, if you can not make it back to the tower, then we wish to help here." Starfire said almost pleadingly. She, like Beast Boy, was undoubtedly feeling useless and helpless. Raven turned to look at her, and Beast Boy then realized just how tired she looked, even in the soft, low lighting of the camp fire.

"The issue is in my mind. I'm afraid you can't help." Raven admitted, and Starfire saddened immediately. Beast Boy, on the contrary, perked up, and he hurried over to his pack. He searched through it for a moment and found what he was looking for: the mirror! Careful not to look into it, he stood and held it out to her, and she gaped at him.

"I didn't want to use it without your permission, so I just brought it along, in case you needed it." he said nervously, and Raven simply stared at him with a humorous dumbstruck expression on her face; it wasn't very often she looked like that.

"Wha... I..." Beast Boy smiled his lopsided, one-fanged grin at her reaction; she hadn't ripped his head off! One point for Team Beast Boy!

"Will this let us help?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, i-" Raven suddenly cried out in pain, and her balance faltered. She fell into a nearby tree, barely holding herself up as she clutched her head.

"Raven!" both Starfire and Beast Boy shouted at once.

"Stay back!" she ordered as a wave of energy shot out from her, creating large cracks in the ground. The energy paralyzed Starfire and Beast Boy for a moment, but, once it had passed, they ignored Raven's order and ran forward to her. "I-I said s-stay back!" she said through gritted teeth as she fell to her knees, but they said nothing in response and stayed put.

"We aren't going anywhere!" Beast Boy said as he knelt in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, and Starfire knelt next to them, silently agreeing to his comment.

"If I lose here, I don't kno-" she started, but was cut off by Starfire.

"We are _not_ leaving, Raven." she said sternly, leaving no room for argument, and Raven looked at her through bloodshot eyes. She then groaned in pain and hunched over as her skin tone seemed to flicker between her pale complexion and what Beast Boy thought poisoned skin would look like. The air began to feel charged and static seemed to be emanating from Raven, only it was black. Beast Boy gritted his teeth as the charges surged painfully through him, but he refused to release her shoulders.

He. Would. Not. Leave!

Instead, he hugged her like he had in the city, only from the front this time, ignoring the charges as they grew larger. Maybe absorbing them would help! He then felt Starfire place a hand on his shoulder, and he looked to see she had also put one on Raven's shoulder, helping in absorbing the surges. After an unidentifiable amount of time, the magical surges stopped, and all three relaxed. Raven then slumped against the tree, breathing heavily with her head inclined forward. Starfire and Beast Boy exchanged worried glances, neither sure what to do, but they both turned back to Raven when she began to speak.

"I... I-I need to get to my camp." she said breathlessly and Starfire and Beast Boy sprung into action. Ignoring the pain in his sides, Beast Boy forced his shirt back on, placed Raven's mirror, the water canteen, and the rag back in his pack, and rolled up his sleeping bag, fastening it to the bottom of his pack. Starfire did the same with her sleeping bag and extinguished the fire with dirt, and they were ready to move in less than a minute.

Beast Boy looked at Starfire, who nodded. The changeling then handed her his pack, shifted into a cat, and scampered over to Raven, hopping into her lap. Raven was confused until Starfire picked her up bridal style, Beast Boy now cradled in her lap, and took off into the air.

"Where?" Starfire asked curtly once they were above the canopy of leaves, and Raven pointed to some cliffs a few miles away, faintly visible in the moonlight. Starfire nodded and sped in that direction. They reached their destination in a matter of minutes, and Starfire waited for more specific instructions. Raven searched for a moment—keeping one arm around Beast Boy, so he wouldn't fall off—and pointed to a section of the cliff not too far to their left. Starfire headed in that direction, and, this time, Raven wrapped both arms around Beast Boy since they were angled downward. If circumstances were different, Beast Boy would have been greatly enjoying this, but, right now, he was completely focused on their destination.

As Starfire began flying parallel to the cliff wall, Raven pointed to the mouth of a cave that was about fifteen feet off the ground. Starfire nodded again, and landed in the mouth of the cave. Beast Boy immediately jumped out of Raven's lap, shifting into a human, and assisted Starfire in helping Raven inside the candle-lit cave, each wrapping one of her arms around their neck. They gently lowered her to the ground against the wall of the cave, and she took a deep breath, slumping slightly from fatigue.

_Raven to Beast Boy Centered POV:_

"I-I do need your help." the empath admitted exhausted. Though she would prefer to do this without putting any of her friends in danger, that no longer seemed to be a possibility. "That last attack on my mind... It... I can't..." she grimaced as another surge of pain shot through her head and then sighed, trying to find the right words through her tired and clouded mind.

"What do you wish for us to do?" Starfire asked kindly, kneeling next to Raven. The tired empath simply pointed to her traveling pack at the far end of the cave; with her mind the way it currently was, she couldn't risk using her powers to move it. As Starfire quickly retrieved the bag, Raven closed her eyes, trying to rein in her thoughts. Someone then squeezed her hand, and she looked to see Beast Boy smiling comfortingly. Raven returned a small smile. Despite what most probably thought, she knew of the changeling's feelings for her. She may seem aloof, but she _was_ and empath, after all. Though, truth be told, she wasn't sure of her own feelings for him. They were good friends; that much had been proven long ago. But, she had never analyzed how deep her feelings for him might run. It was possible she felt more than friendship for him, even if they did get on each others nerves all the time... but she wasn't certain. She had no idea why she had kissed him before. She didn't usually act on spur of the moment feelings like that... hence why the fire exploded.

Starfire returned and held up the bag questioningly. Raven nodded, silently telling her to open it. Doing so, Starfire splayed the contents on the ground in front of them. There were two books, a thin tipped marker, some chalk, five candles, and a small stack of loose leaf pages different markings on each of them. The books were no longer useful to them except as a writing surface, but everything else was needed.

"Can you spread those papers out?" Raven asked quietly, and Starfire and Beast Boy did so. Scanning them quickly the mage picked one of them up, along with one of the books and the marker. She turned the paper over and started drawing the array again, making changes to account for the presence of Starfire and Beast Boy. The mentioned pair sat patiently while she worked, and, in about ten minutes, she was done. She set the paper on the ground in front of her, and they looked at it. There was a large circle with a smaller one in the middle. Two other circles were connected by single lines to the center circle, and they were positioned so all three were in a straight line. A multitude of markings rimmed the lines of the circles, both on the inside and the outside, and a few larger symbols took up the empty space inside the large circle.

"This needs to be drawn on the cave floor. I spent a while looking for a cave that was appropriately sized, and then more time flattening the floor to allow this to be drawn." Raven explained as the two continued to observe the array. "It has to be _very_ accurate." The two nodded in understanding and set to work. Nothing was said unless it was to verify something on the page, and Raven took this opportunity to meditate further. She couldn't believe how fast the demon's influence was spreading!

A demon she had learned was named Naðra, had attacked her mind a few weeks prior. At first, Raven had believed it was just a dream since it had occurred while she was sleeping, but then the demon's influence began affecting her mood, making her increasingly agitated to the point of secluding herself in order to prevent herself from snapping at anyone. That didn't stop her from snapping at Starfire and Beast Boy, though. Raven felt incredibly guilty about that. They had only wanted to help, after all.

Once Raven learned there _was_ a demon trying to take over her mind, she spent a great deal of time meditating, trying to get rid of the demon through mental means alone. When that proved ineffective, she had begun researching and found the demon in one of her many books. All of the markers were there: the demon's personality, the association with reptiles, the need to feed on fear, both of which she had learned through her dream. Raven then cross-referenced her new knowledge of the demon with what she knew of creating magical arrays, along with a few books on the subject, and created a series of symbols designed to keep Naðra out of her mind. They would only work on the one demon, but more comprehensive symbols would take more time, time she didn't currently have. Now the symbols had to be added to her mind-scape in specific locations: more specifically, the center of each of her emotional domains.

Someone cleared their throat tentatively, and Raven opened her eyes to see Starfire and Beast Boy had finished with the array. Scanning over it meticulously, Raven was pleased to find no mistakes; even the smallest error could result in disaster.

"Can I see the array again?" the weary empath asked, and Starfire handed it to her. Raven then marked five spots on the edge of the outer circle and handed it back, along with the candles she had brought. "These candles need to be placed in the marked locations." The two other titans nodded and quickly followed her instructions. Raven then stood, grabbing the chalk and remaining papers as she did so, and made her way to the center of the array.

"Sit. I need to explain a few things." she said to the other two once they were done, motioning to the ground in front of her, and they did so. She wasn't trying to sound demanding, but she was exhausted and they were pressed for time. She then realized how strange it was seeing the two titans who generally talked the most being so quiet.

"It's very fortunate that you brought that mirror, Beast Boy, because I'm going to need both of you to go into my mind." she continued, feeling guilty for putting such a task on them. She then placed the chalk and the stack of papers on the ground in front of them.

"Do you remember when you entered my mind before and how my emotions had their own embodiments?" she asked him, and the green teen nodded. "They have their own domains as well, and one of each of these symbols," she splayed out he papers, "needs to be drawn in the center of each of those domains. I've marked which area each goes in." Starfire and Beast Boy nodded in understanding.

"But...The symbols... I suppose you could say they require an activation fee." Raven explained hesitantly.

"What's the fee?" Beast Boy asked, not at all perturbed or unsettled by the thought.

"Energy." Raven replied. Her companions seemed undeterred. "I was going to do this myself, but, if I go in the way I am now, the demon, Naðra, will easily overtake me."

"Don't worry about it! At least the fee's not a limb or something." Beast Boy joked, and Starfire giggled lightly.

"I must agree. Such a cost is more than worth it." she added with a smile. Raven simply stared at them, slightly flabbergasted. Even after all these years, she was still surprised by what her friends were willing to do for her. What the empath didn't tell them, though, was that _she_ would be giving most of the energy required. It was her mind, after all. She should be the one to give energy to liberate it. Though, at this point, she wouldn't have enough for all the symbols, even if her energy did regenerate with time. Time was their issue. That was the other reason she needed their help.

"Well, this won't be an easy task. Due to the demon's influence, my mind-scape will have been altered dramatically, and, instead of facing crows, you may find yourselves facing more dragon-kin."

"So, what exactly are those things. I _know_ draconians don't exist." Beast Boy said with a laugh. "At least, that's what Cyborg's always telling me."

"You _would_ be the one to believe in them, wouldn't you?" Raven asked with a slight smirk, and Beast Boy huffed indignantly. "Well, in this case, Cyborg is both right and wrong. They don't exist normally, but they can be 'spawned' in a sense by this demon."

"So, is that how these creatures have filled this area?" Starfire asked, and Raven hesitated.

"Again, yes and no." she explained at length. "Do you remember when my powers made the monsters from that movie a reality?" Starfire and Beast Boy nodded. "It's a similar concept. Normally, it wouldn't be possible for the dragon-kin, along with other unnatural serpentine creatures, to be spawned unless Naðra herself was in the mortal realm. But, with my powers being what they are, I seem to have created them through the demon's tampering of my mind.

"So, why won't they attack you?" Beast Boy asked, remembering their earlier conversation.

"They don't want to harm the body their queen will be using." Raven replied flatly, and Beast Boy's ears drooped. He couldn't stand it if he had to face Raven again. Now he knew how Starfire must have felt when they had to face Robin. If Raven was forced to turn on them again... No! This wasn't the time to think like that! Deciding they had spent enough time talking, the changeling then got up and hurried over to his pack. He returned and handed her her meditation mirror, picking up the chalk and the stack of papers.

"Alright, enough chatter! Let's get this show on the road!" he shouted enthusiastically, pumping his fists into the air.

"Agreed!" Starfire piped in, matching his enthusiasm. Raven rolled her eyes at their mirth. Though, a ghost of a smile did make its way into her features as they both eagerly took their positions in the two outer circles.

"One more thing." Raven said as they sat down, and they looked at her expectantly. "The taint. Because of it, my emotions may not be the same as you remember them. They may even try to kill you." she said seriously, and Starfire and Beast Boy nodded, understanding the gravity of what she was telling them. Beast Boy also felt a tightening in his chest, and he had to take a deep breath. It seemed he may have to fight her again no matter what happened...

Nodding to them, Raven drew her hood up and sat lotus style, the mirror placed on the ground in front of her. Focusing her energy into the array, the sorceress activated it, and it, along with her eyes, glowed white as the candles magically lit themselves. The three teens were then surrounded by a vortex of black energy as the mirror began to levitate, floating between Raven's hands. She then extended her hands out wide in a cutting motion, and Beast Boy suddenly felt light-headed as her magic surrounded him and Starfire. He then had to close his eyes to protect them from the sphere of blinding light that suddenly expanded from the meditation mirror. When the light vanished, Raven sat alone in the cave.

* * *

Fixed a few errors (3-11-11)

Love hearing opinions, so ask yourself:

What would Dee Dee do?

l

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V


	7. Happy's Dungeon

**AN:** Sorry for the late update. I spent the little free time I had last week creating the puzzles for this dungeon. Then some personal things came up last weekend, and I wasn't feeling in a very 'writing' mood.

Anyway, I drew a map of the dungeon for you guys to look off of while you read if you like. It might make some things easier to understand.

.com/#/d3aktqz

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and/or read this story so far.

Raven's Tainted emotions

Happy – Sadistic

Brave – Pride

Timid – Fear

Rude – Heartless

Knowledge – Insane

Wisdom – Demented

Affection – Lust

Anger – Rage

If anyone has a better ideas for Wisdom's tainted counter-part, I'm open to suggestions. The names aren't opposite to Raven's normal emotions. They are extreme, negative cases. Take sadistic: she is happy to cause pain.

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

"Oof!" Starfire and Beast Boy grunted as they landed haphazardly on the ground in Raven's head, straining Beast Boy's injuries in the process.

"Man, you'd think we could be _set_ down for a change instead of dumped." Beast Boy groaned as they both sat up. His expression instantly became crestfallen, and Starfire looked around at the sudden change in demeanor. It looked as though they were in the middle of a barren wasteland. The ground was dry and cracked, and only a few dead trees and shrubs could be seen. Nothing else was growing, and cloud-cover was visible as far as the eye could see.

"We are inside Raven's mind?" The confused Tamaranian asked, turning back to Beast Boy. This wasn't anything like what she had expected. It looked so... empty. Sure Raven could be reclusive, but Starfire knew she definitely wasn't mentally dead or even emotionally dead... just repressed.

"I..." Beast Boy shook his head, not believing what he was seeing. Just to second check himself, he took out the stack of symbols. On the top of the first was written:

Realm 1: Happy (Pink)

-Sadistic

"This is Happy's domain?" he asked, inaudibly quiet, as he looked around the desolate wasteland that surrounded them on all sides. He recalled meeting Raven's pink-clad emotion, but this place had been nothing like it was now. Sure it had been a little too pink for his tastes, but he didn't mind it _that_ much.

"Something is wrong?" Starfire asked, worried by his downcast demeanor.

"It's so different." Beast Boy replied quietly, though audibly this time. But, after a moment, the sadness in his eyes was replaced with determination as he became dead-set on completing their task. "Alright, let's get started!" He stood, folding the papers and putting them back in his pocket.

"But, where _do_ we begin?" Starfire asked confused, taking another look around. How were they supposed to find the center of the domain when it all looked the same?

"There." Beast Boy said pointing to something in the distance. Though Starfire couldn't see anything, Beast Boy's enhanced vision could make out something in the distance. "I can see some kind'a building." he clarified, and Starfire nodded in understanding. They both then took to the air, making haste towards the unknown structure.

As they neared, a strange feeling seemed to fill the air. It was emanating from the structure which both could now tell looked like some kind of temple or monastery. They had almost reached the building when Beast Boy was forced back into human form, and Starfire started to fall, unable to fly.

"Aaah!" Starfire shrieked as Beast Boy let out a similar cry of shock. Luckily, they had not been flying too high, but the landing still hurt.

"Ugh." Beast Boy groaned as he sat up. "Man, I already felt like swiz-cheese. Now I feel like swiz-cheez that took an express rout through a blender."

"I am unsure of the cheese of swizz or the machine of blending, but that indeed hurt extensively." Starfire agreed as she too sat up, rubbing her sore head, which she had landed on. "What in the name of the Centauri moons just happened?"

"I don't know. Can you fly at all?" the changeling asked, and she shook her head, looking to the structure. "Hm... I can't change form either."

"Perhaps the structure is somehow canceling our powers. Maybe it is some sort of fail-safe the demon placed to prevent intervention from outside help."

"Can she do that?" Beast Boy asked unnerved, even though Starfire knew as little of the demon as he did.

"I am unsure, but since neither of us can use our powers, I believe we can assume as much." Beast Boy didn't like the idea. If the demon could do _that_, what else was she capable of? Both silently agreeing that going by foot was their only option, they continued towards the structure.

The building seemed as though it had been abandoned for years. Windows were broken. The walls were falling apart in some places. It was also _humongous_! It all gave Beast Boy a really eerie feeling. What coupled that feeling was the strange aura that still seemed to fill the air, and now that they were closer, it seemed as though it was beckoning them inside, calling out to them.

"Okay, am I the only one who's getting really wierded out here?" the unnerved changeling asked as they stopped in front of the large stone doors.

"Assuredly not." the alien girl replied as she looked the doors up and down, something Beast Boy joined her in doing. The doors were almost twice his height! Who knew how heavy they were?

"Do you think we'll b able to get in?" he asked as he moved forward. He placed his hands on one of the doors and pressed against it lightly, testing it. He then proceeded to heave with all his might, trying to push even one of them open. Needless to say, he got nowhere. Starfire then grabbed the other door and opened it with relative ease, leaving Beast Boy gaping at her.

"Well, looks like you at least get to keep your alien strength!" the changeling said with a laugh, and Starfire giggled with glee. Hooray for inhuman strength with no supernatural element! The two teens then looked inside and saw they could see only a few feet into the adjoining hallway before it became pitch black. Seeing an unlit torch on the wall, Beast Boy hurried forward to grab it and returned outside. He then grabbed two rocks that had crumbled off the structure's wall, set the torch on the ground, and began striking the rocks together. In a few seconds, he had managed a spark that lit the torch, and he picked it back up.

"Shall we proceed?" Starfire asked, and he nodded. With that, the two entered the temple.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

They had been walking for a few minutes with no end of the tunnel in sight, and Starfire was really starting to get anxious; she had never been fond of dark places.

"Do you see the end yet?" she asked anxiously, hoping Beast Boy's enhanced vision could see something she couldn't.

"Nah, sorry Star. Not yet." Beast Boy replied apologetically.

"What is the need of such a lengthy, dark tunnel?" the distressed alien girl demanded.

"I'm not sure. I-" Beast Boy paused and squinted ahead. "Wait, I think I actually see something up there. Looks like a room." he said relieved, and Starfire gasped with glee before grabbing his free arm and pulling him forward. She refused to be in the dark tunnel anymore!

They entered the room, and the light from the torch showed them that they were standing at the top of some stairs that descended down the wall to their right. Standing at the edge of the ledge, the light from the torch didn't even reach the far walls!

"Whoa!" Beast Boy's voice echoed through the hall.

As if the sound had triggered something, light suddenly filled the room as two enormous chandeliers seemed to light themselves, and Beast Boy let out a very girly scream in shock.

"Light! Joyous!" the now alleviated alien princess exclaimed as she jumped up and down jovially, basking in the light. She then eagerly took in her surroundings. As opposed to the outside of the structure, the inside seemed to be in fairly good condition. The tan cobblestone walls had no holes and scarce few cracks in them, and the floor was made of a sleek umber-grey marble. Starfire usually didn't like the color brown, but it seemed to fit here somehow. Tall banners lined the walls, nearly reaching the floor, but they were the only things that seemed in poor condition. There color seemed to have faded away with time and they were greatly torn. There were two tall platforms other than the one the two teens were standing on, and each lead to a door. There was a small platform on the far side of the room in front of them, though the door was gated with thick bars, and a larger platform to their left. But, neither platform had stairs. How were they supposed to get up to the doors?

Starfire then turned her attention to the two large chandeliers. They were obviously magically enchanted to light once someone entered the room. After a little time in the dark tunnel, Starfire had identified the aura that filled the air as a thick magical one. It was concentrated through the door on the smaller platform, likely leading to the center of the domain.

"The center seems to be through there, given the trail of magic." she voiced out loud, and Beast Boy looked to the smaller platform, then to the larger platform.

"Man!" he exclaimed in frustration as he grabbed fistfuls of his hair, startling Starfire. "We gotta' solve puzzles too?"

"Puzzles?" asked a very confused alien princess.

"Yeah, that door's locked." He pointed to the gated door across from them, "So, we'll probably find the switch or button that opens it through that door." He pointed to the door on the larger platform.

"Oh." Starfire responded in understanding. The changeling then pondered their situation while the alien girl looked between the green teen and their destination. The distance seemed right. Maybe... Then, without warning, she grabbed his shoulders and threw him across the twenty or so foot gap between their platform and the larger one. Beast Boy let loose another girly scream as he flew through the air, and Starfire giggled lightly. The changeling landed far less than gracefully on the platform and instantly shot up.

"What was that for?" he demanded, nursing his hurting sides.

"I apologize, but it was the only way I could think to get you over there." Starfire responded sheepishly, speaking loudly now that there was over twenty feet between them.

"A little warning next time would be nice!" he shot back, fuming. Unperturbed by his just anger, Starfire jumped off the platform she was on, not bothering to use the stairs, and tumbled once she hit the floor, landing on her feet. She then moved over to one of the large banners and effortlessly ripped it down. She then threw one end up to an alarmed changeling, who caught it nonetheless.

"What's this?" he asked confused.

"A ladder. I cannot fly." Starfire responded plainly.

"Oh, right." Beast Boy said with a sheepish grin, anger gone. Apparently he had already forgotten they had no powers. Starfire giggled again, amused by her silly comrade. "Alright, ready!" he said stepping back, preparing himself to hold her wait. With a nod, Starfire began climbing the wall, using the banner as a rope. When she reached the top in a few moments, she lifted herself up, and Beast Boy fell backwards from the sudden absence of her weight.

"Ow..." he groaned as Starfire hurried over to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked with worry as he sat up. He was still injured, after all. "Are your injuries still sealed?"

"Yeah, they're fine. I've got pretty fast healing. Apparently I still have it too. Guess it's kind of like your super strength." he said checking the only wound he could see; the other two were too far on his back. The bandage wasn't blood-stained, so the wounds obviously hadn't opened.

"Then... shall we continue?" Starfire asked, still unsure as to whether he was actually alright, and he nodded with a grin as he stood up. Before she could say anything to voice her concern, he was off and through the door. Starfire followed quickly.

They entered a room that was about the same size as the large platform outside, quite spacious. There were five indentations that acted as small rooms of sorts: two on each side of the room and one large one on the far side of the room. All were gated except the one directly to their left when they entered. Starfire could see a lever behind the large gate and one to their left. There were also two chests sitting on either side of the switch they couldn't reach. The only other things in the room were eight foot tall statues of giant cobras with arms, each holding a scimitar. Starfire crinkled her nose in disgust; she had never been very fond of serpents either.

"Okay, so, I guess we should pull that lever." Beast Boy said pointing to the one to their left. Nodding, Starfire hurried over to said lever while Beast Boy moved over to the larger gate, waiting for it to open. Starfire pulled the lever. Apparently she pulled too hard, though because it snapped when it bent too far.

"Uuh..." she said nervously, holding up the broken piece of metal. She then heard the sound of numerous gates opening, and sighed in relief. Apparently it still worked.

"Aaah!" she heard Beast Boy scream, greatly alarming her. She ran out, lever raised like a weapon, only to be run into by said changeling, and they both tumbled to the ground.

"What happened?" she inquired sitting up. Her only answer was Beast Boy pointing frantically while trying to back up more, and she looked to see the large cobra statues, eyes now glowing red, had somehow come to life! Their gates had opened too while the one they needed open remained closed. What was _that_ about?

The statues quickly advance on the pair, who immediately sprung into action. Beast Boy ran, screaming, from two as they followed him, and the last swung it's large scimitar at Starfire. The alien girl squeaked in shock as she barely deflected the attack using her broken lever. The giant scimitar hit the ground, forcefully crushing the stone it hit. Starfire quickly jumped as the sword was then thrust sideways, aimed at her legs, and brought the lever down on the cobra's head. A few cracks appeared, but that was it. Her expression became apprehensive as she knew what was coming next. Being unable to fly, she couldn't avoid the stone arm that hit her aside, slamming her against a wall.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy was using an 'avoid all' tactic. He had no weapon or super strength to attack them with, so that was all he _could_ do. Luckily, his lack of excessive muscle made him limber, and his naturally fast reflexes made the task simpler than it would be for anyone else. That didn't mean it was easy, though. As he barely ducked under one of their scimitars, he saw they were flanking him, and he got an idea. He jumped over the swing of the next attack, landed on the snake's hand and then jumped up, landing on it's head. Just for fun, he then made a taunting face at the other statue as it raised it's sword to hit him. It brought the sword down, but the changeling jumped out of the way, and the sword dug itself deep into the head of the one he had been standing on.

"Yeah!" Beast Boy cheered as it fell to the ground, eyes no longer glowing, but he immediately froze when the other seemed undeterred by the fact that it had just killed its partner and came after him again.

Starfire had seen his partial success, and cheered too, but for a different reason. She darted for the fallen cobra, ducking under the scimitar of her attacker as it tried to behead her. Once she reached the now lifeless pile of rubble, she discarded the useless lever and picked up the giant scimitar the snake had been using. Knowing her assailant was right on her heels, she quickly spun and blocked the downward strike meant to crush her using her new weapon. She angled her blade so that the snake's slid down to the floor, and she put her foot on it, preventing the stone creature from lifting it. Smirking confidently, she then cut the giant snake's head off. The head shattered when it hit the floor, and the now second lifeless stone body fell to the floor.

"Aah! Star, a little help please!" Beast Boy screamed frantically as he continued running from his pursuer, now on the far side of the room. Starfire held the sword out behind her and waited for the right moment to strike, watching the motion of the snake. It gained on Beast Boy and attacked, its sword burying itself into the ground when he evaded. That was her chance! The snake slowed momentarily to rip its blade from the ground, and Starfire threw hers as hard as she could. The sword flew true, skewering the stone cobra and pinning it to the wall. It's eyes stopped glowing. The changeling carefully approached it, afraid it might jump out at him again. When he was sure it wouldn't, he relaxed.

"Wow, nice throw, Star!" he complimented as he observed the now unmoving stone statue.

"Why thank you, friend." the alien girl said with a wide grin; she totally did the butt kicking of that large stone serpent! The sound of a gate opening drew the pair's attention, and they turned to see the large gate had been lifted.

"Boo-yah! We win!" Beast Boy cheered enthusiastically.

"I concur. Though, we are likely to encounter more foes as we proceed." Starfire added. Beast Boy's enthusiasm dipped slightly, and he drooped his head as he thought of what else they might have to face. But, then he perked up again as he moved over to one of the two chests next to the lever they had yet to pull.

"I wonder what's in these!" he said excitedly as he put an ear to the chest and rapped it with his knuckle. Apparently satisfied with the sound, he thrust the lid open, reminding Starfire of a child on Christmas morning.

"Whoa!" He exclaimed as he reached inside. He tried to pull something out, but couldn't seem to lift whatever it was. Joining him, Starfire looked inside. What she saw, she hadn't quite been expecting. Laying in the chest was a set of high quality steel armor, apparently for Starfire, given its shape, and a navy blue raven was imbued into the black cloth above the plate armor, just below the collar. Stafire smiled at that; apparently Raven was looking out for them. What Beast Boy was trying to lift was a large flamberge. The grip was black while the blade and guard were, like the armor, silver steel. Another navy blue raven was imbued into the black ricasso of the blade. Intrigued, Starfire reached down and picked it up with one hand, admiring its beauty and workmanship.

"Man, I couldn't even _lift_ it, and here you are holding it with one hand like it's a toothbrush." Beast Boy complained, folding his arms across his chest as he fumed lightly.

"It would appear these were designed for me to use." Starfire said pointing to the chest plate that was obviously for females. Beast Boy looked at it and blushed, apparently just now noticing it.

"Oh, yeah." he said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Starfire giggled at his antics and reached down to pick up the armor. When her fingers touched it, though, the armor was surrounded in a swirling while light. Shocked, Starfire stepped back, only to see the same light start to swirl around her feet, moving upward. Once it reached her neck, it began to dissipate, and in its wake, Starfire noticed her clothes had been replaced with the armor.

Aside from the black cloth covering her collar and neck, there was more below the steel breast plate, which ended a few inches above her waist and rose slightly higher on the sides. With the steel not restricting her waist, she found she could bend effortlessly. More black cloth covered her thighs where the armor could not go, and black sleeves rested under her silver spaulders. Her boots and gloves were made of black leather, silver plates mounted on them.

"Whoa, how'd it do that?" Beast Boy asked wide-eyed.

"It would seem Raven has enchanted them to equip themselves." Starfire responded as she admired the armor.

"Raven?" asked the befuddled Beast Boy, and Starfire responded by pointing to the blue raven at her collarbone. "Oh. Wow, I didn't know she could do that." the changeling said, and Starfire could detect the admiration in his voice.

"Indeed. The second chest must contain your equipment." she said with a warm smile. She would have to have a conversation with Raven regarding Beast Boy at some point.

"Right." he agreed as he moved over to the other chest, Starfire following, and he opened it. Inside was a set of dark umber, leather armor.

Laying on top of the armor were twin Persian shamshirs, their blades a stunning onyx while the edges where the blades had been sharpened were silver. Navy blue ravens were embedded into the hand guards. Beast Boy picked them up and swung them around a bit, testing their weight and movement.

"They're so light!" he said shocked. He then put them both in one hand and reached down to touch the leather armor. The same white light as before swirled around the armor and Beast Boy, and, when it faded, the armor was equipped. Similar to Starfire's, his armor had black cloth at the collar, beneath leather spaulders, and at the sides of the leather chest piece. Unlike Starfire's attire, Beast Boy's came with a series of throwing knives, sheaths embedded into the leather. He also had tan, cloth pants and dark umber leather boots. The final detail was the same navy blue raven on his chest piece.

Beast Boy wasn't too keen on the fact that the armor was leather, but beggars couldn't be choosers in this kind of situation. He probably wouldn't be able to wear steel armor. Still, he had to admit, the armor looked pretty cool.

"You look quite dashing." Starfire complimented with a cheery grin, one Beast Boy returned.

"Thanks. You make that armor look really cool, too." Beast Boy said as he walked over to the lever they had yet to pull, sheathing his swords at his waist. "Alright! You ready?" he asked, bracing himself, and Starfire nodded. Beast Boy rubbed his hands together and placed them on the handle. He glanced around cautiously, waiting for anything to jump out, and Starfire held her sword at the ready. Beast Boy then pulled the lever quickly, like ripping off a band-aid, and whipped his swords out.

A rumbling then filled the room, but nothing seemed to happen. Confused, the pair hurriedly left the room back to the large one they had first entered, only to find it had become very dimly lit, light barely reaching the far wall.

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

"That's not creepy at all." Beast Boy said sarcastically as he looked around the dark room. He could see platforms lining the walls in front of them and on the far wall, leading to the platform they now needed to get to. There was about a five foot gap between each of them.

"Those platforms weren't there before, were they?" he asked, pointing to said platforms, and Starfire shook her head. They both then jumped, alarmed, as they heard what sounded like a large drain opening. Hurrying to the edge of the large platform and looking over the edge, they saw what looked like water begin to fill the floor from beneath all the platforms.

"That is definitely not good." Starfire stated worriedly.

"Why? Isn't it just water?" The changeling asked confused. What was so bad about water? Starfire shook her head, though.

"No, look." she pointed below them to where the water touched the stone of the platform. Beast Boy could see the stone was sizzling where the two things were in contact.

"So, what, it's really warm water or something?" he asked, not following her train of thought. She shook her head again.

"Acid." was her only reply, and Beast Boy's eyes widened in shock.

"You've gotta' be kidding me! Who puts acid in-" he didn't get to finish his outburst because the platform they were currently standing on gave a jerk, and it began to lower towards the acid! Worse yet, the acid was still rising. They both screamed in alarm.

"We must move!" Starfire insisted as she pushed him over closer to the platforms against the wall.

"What're y-whoa!" Beast Boy cried out when Starfire threw him to the next platform. He landed ungracefully again, and Starfire quickly jumped across to join him, only to feel that platform now start to rumble before it too began descending towards the rising acid. She bent to throw Beast Boy again, but he held up his hand to stop her. These jumps were shorter. He could do these.

"I got this." he said standing up, and they both then leapt to the next platform, Beast Boy actually landing on his feet since he wasn't surprised by being thrown. They used their running momentum to jump the distances easier and reached the far wall in no time. However, the acid was already halfway up the completely raised platforms! Most of the platforms they had already passed had been submerged completely. The two teens moved fast from there, but there were more platforms on this wall, not to mention, the platforms started falling _before_ they landed on them.

"Whoever designed this should get mobbed by rioters with torches and pitchforks!" Beast Boy hollered over the roar of the acid flowing and hissing as they continued their escapade across the treacherous platforms.

"I can not but agree!" Starfire shouted back as she almost lost her footing on a crumbling section of one of the platforms. Finally they made it to the last platform, and they both sprinted for the door that had indeed opened; it would have been a real downer if it hadn't. Only, as they landed on the platform, the door began to lower! What twisted person made this? Starfire managed to roll under the gate, and immediately turned, barelyholding the door open using her alien strength. Beast Boy slid under the door, the acid barely missing his feet on the platform, and Starfire let the door close. They both backed cautiously away from the door, fearing the acid would come through. After a few antagonizing moments, nothing happened, and they relaxed, slumping against the wall. Apparently they were safe here.

"I never wish to do that again." Starfire said with a hand on her chest, probably trying to slow down her heart rate. Beast Boy knew his was going crazy. The tired changeling nodded breathlessly, agreeing wholeheartedly.

After a moment to catch their breath and recuperate mentally, the duo continued. The room was lit by torches on the wall, and it was obvious that the only place to go was a staircase on the right side of the room from the door they had just entered through. Cautiously, they began descending the torchlit stairs, swords drawn. They had already faced giant stone cobras and had almost been drowned in _acid_! Who knew what else was waiting for them?

After they had descended what Beast Boy would equate to three floors of stairs, only these were all straight, he heard what sounded like running water and tensed immediately.

"Uh, Star, I don't mean to scare you, but..." he started nervously, and she stopped to look at him, a worried expression on her face. "I hear water up ahead." Glancing cautiously ahead, Starfire seemed to be debating with herself over something.

"I do not believe it is acid." she finally said, shaking her head.

"How do you know?" Beast Boy asked apprehensively.

"It is just a feeling. We have already overcome that trial. Whatever is up ahead will likely be a new challenge." Deciding she was probably right, the changeling nodded, and they continued, at a slightly faster pace this time since their nerves were calming down. Once they had descended another floor of stairs, they came to another room, only it wasn't a room. It looked more like a sewer, but the water was clean, and there wasn't a funny smell in the air. The water flowed through the center of the hallway and continued through a tunnel at the side of the room. They would have to walk through the water and, since one direction was barred off, they only had one way to go. Taking a knife out, Beast Boy walked over to the edge and held it out. He dropped it into the liquid and watched it carefully. Even if the stone wasn't sizzling, he didn't want to take any chances.

It didn't sizzle.

The two teens heaved heavy sighs of relief and Starfire grabbed a torch off the wall, since there were non in the tunnel. They then jumped down into the ankle-deep water. Their feet didn't burn off, so it obviously wasn't acid. Picking up his knife and putting it away, the pair began making their way through the small canal, the torch being their only source of light. Before too long, they came to a left turn, and Beast Boy could have sworn he saw something climbing across the wall in the distance. Freaked out, he stopped immediately, grabbing Starfire's shoulder to make her do the same.

"What is it?" she asked, trying to see up ahead, though her vision wasn't as good as his. The changeling took a step back when a pair of glowing red eyes snapped in their direction from down the tunnel, and Starfire shrieked. The next instant, it was gone, climbing to the right and out of sight.

"Okay, this place is really freaky!" Beast Boy hollered frustratedly.

"What was that thing?" asked a distressed Starfire, but the changeling could only shrug in response. Taking a deep breath, he started forward again, Starfire following closely behind him. They reached the right turn the... whatever it was had gone down, and Beast Boy peeked around the corner. He couldn't see the creature but, he could see another lit room at the end of the tunnel. Nodding to Starfire, the pair cautiously moved forward, waiting for that thing to jump out again. Surprisingly, it didn't, and they made it to the room without another incident.

The room was, again, quite large. The small canal of water continued through the center of the room and left through a gated tunnel. There were a series of platforms in the room, the same number on each side of the canal. They were all different heights, but the last two of each were connected by small walkways that then extended to the platform across the water.

Even though the room was light enough to see comfortably, the pair of super teens didn't see the small pack of creatures climbing silently towards them on the wall above them.

AN: So, I would get the next chapter up this weekend due to the late update. But, midterms are this week, so I have to study... a lot. Anyway, see you whenever I can get the next chapter up. Please review.

Terminology:

ricasso – the generally dull edged part of the blade positioned right above the hilt or guard.

Persian shamshirs – a curved blade (example: twin shamshirs from Prince of Persia movie)


	8. A Single Instant

I know it's been over two weeks since my last update. Ran into a little writers block with the beginning of this chapter. Hope you like it, though. Thanks to all my readers for taking the time out of your day to read this!

FelynxTiger: Glad to hear you like it so much. My inspiration for writing style is R. A. Salvator, author of the Forgotten Realms. You might like the books.

Densharr:Thanks for the tip about the armor! You'll get to see what I did with it in 9. Also, I like the Foolishness idea. I'll see what I can do wit it.

Sasse1892: Also glad to hear it, and thanks for the patience, you guys arevery lenient with update times.

mjlover0021: I'm not sure what went wrong, but hopefully it's fixed now. This file uploader and chapter adder system doesn't like me very much. :p

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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_BB Centered POV:_

The green changeling looked around the room, but, so far, he couldn't see any puzzles they had to solve, any signs of enemies, or that thing they had seen before. He sniffed the air. Nothing. Confused, he turned and looked back into the dark tunnel. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary there either.

They had to have gone the right way; there had only been one direction _to_ go. Not to mention, the strange feeling egging him farther into the dungeon, something Starfire had said was some kind of 'magic trail'—whatever that was—went through the door at the end of the current room. The door was barred shut, though. The only thing left was to check the pillars, Beast Boy supposed, and he started walking through the water to stand under the walkway connecting the two nearest platforms.

"Hey, Star, can you toss me u-" he was cut off by Starfire.

"Behind you!" she cried urgently, readying her sword in one hand, torch raised in the other. Beast Boy spun around and looked up to see... something on the pillar to his right. It looked like a _huge_ chameleon! It was about a foot and a half tall when on all fours and two and a half feet in length, tail not included. It's scaled skin was dark brown, almost black, and it glistened with reflecting light. It had bladed spikes running down its spine and four sharp, inch-long claws on each foot. It's head also looked like that of a chameleon's, but it had razor sharp teeth and tiny, glowing red eyes. The really freaky part was that it looked like it was _smiling_ at him.

'Creeepyyy.' the changeling thought as he took a few wary steps backwards.

"Uh... Well, I guess we found whatever that thing in the tunnel was." he added out loud with a nervous laugh as he continued to slowly step backwards—maybe if he made no sudden movements it wouldn't see him. He knew he wasn't lucky enough for that to be the case when it eerily crawled forward, over the edge of the platform, now half on the side, keeping its creepy, smiling gaze focused on him. Then stone cracked as its claws dug into it, keeping it from falling.

Beast Boy wanted to run. Really badly too. His animal instincts were driving him _crazy_! Instead, he raised his swords, waiting for it to pounce. He then realized something odd. A while ago, during one of their sessions, Raven had told him of ways to tell if something might prefer travel in groups, and this one seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It was fairly small—to a person, anyway—and, if the creepy smile was any indicator, it was fairly intelligent, capable of causing, say, a distraction...

'Uh-oh...' he thought instantly as he snapped his head around to look behind him and Star. Seeing nothing, he quickly looked up, and, sure enough, there were more of them crawling on the walls toward Starfire, those same creepy smiles on their faces.

Seeing him do this, Starfire followed his gaze and shrieked in alarm at the sight she was met with right before the group of five on the wall jumped. She managed to hit two aside successively with her torch. The next two, though, knocked her down, and the one after that landed on her, slashing her face with it's deadly claws. She cried out in pain before punching it to the side with the hilt of her flamberge.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy had taken out a throwing knife the instant before they jumped, prepared to nail one of them to the wall with it, but something heavy had landed on his back before he felt razor sharp teeth dig into his right shoulder. He screamed in pain as he fell to his knees, and he saw blood drip into the shallow water beneath him, flowing down the gentle current. Instinctively, the changeling turned so his back was to the wall of the canal and slammed himself backwards, attempting to crush the creature. It let out a high pitched yelp as it released his shoulder. The creature then jumped away as the changeling fell forward, clutching his wounded shoulder to try and stop the bleeding. He then picked up his fallen throwing knife and threw it into the cluster of creatures surrounding Starfire. It stuck one of them in the leg, and the creature yelped before it too jumped away. The others quickly followed suit, and Beast Boy hurried over to the panting alien girl as she got to her feet.

The changeling almost took a step back when he saw the dark look on her face. She was _pissed_! She hadn't even looked this mad when Blackfire had attempted to send her to prison in her place. She _clearly_ wasn't a fan of these things. Though, Beast Boy couldn't much say he was either, even after just meeting them.

He then turned his attention back to the fight and looked around. The large chameleons were running along just about every surface in the room, including the ceiling, at inhuman speeds, using their claws to hold themselves up. More, _a lot_ more, had joined the first few, but Beast Boy couldn't tell how many there were now.

The angered alien girl beside him set the torch on the dry stone above the canal and stalked forward. She then suddenly raised her fist and punched the wall of the canal, pieces of it crumbling into the water below. She picked one up and threw it like a baseball at one of the scampering creatures that was running across the ceiling. It comically pegged the creature in the head, and said creature lost it's grip on the ceiling. As it was falling through they air, Starfire raised her flamberge and cut the creature clean in two once it was in range! Beast Boy had one thing to say in response, well, think in response.

'Never piss off an alien with super strength and a five foot sword!' Oddly enough, the creature didn't bleed when it was cut in half. It just seemed to crumble into a pile of ash. But, neither companion had the time to dwell on this, as the death of the creature seemed to anger the others in the large group. Loud screeches filled the room as they began jumping around madly, closing ranks around the two super teens.

"Uh-oh. I think you just made them mad!" Beast Boy said nervously as he raised both of his swords, trying to keep his eye on as many of them as possible.

"I believe you may be correct." Starfire agreed, backing up to stand back to back with the changeling. Just then, one of the chameleons jumped off of the nearest pillar, Starfire it's target. His instincts forcing him to react faster than normal, Beast Boy spun and stabbed it with both swords, running it through. Starfire squeaked when she turned and saw it's outstretched claws only a few inches from her face. The changeling felt the weight of his swords decrease dramatically when the chameleon turned to ash, said ash floating down the stream until there was nothing left.

Chaos ensued. At seeing another ally die, the remaining group attacked seemingly all at once, jumping at the pair with alarming force from every direction. Beast Boy managed to block a few of the attacks, even killing another in the process, but most hit him full on, each knocking the wind out of him and causing him to lose his footing. A few more hits, and he was taken to the ground, a new gash on his cheek and numerous cuts adorning his armor. Wow, he was thankful for the armor! Who knew what shape he would have been in if he didn't have it! He would have to thank Raven later, given they made it out of this.

Beast Boy then felt Starfire grab his wrist, and he was then tossed onto one of the platforms above; what was it with her and _throwing_ him? Once the changeling landed, though, he immediately became thankful when he saw her stab one of the creatures that had landed, foot in the ground where his head had been. The changeling also noticed there were quite a few less creatures than there had been before and also noticed the piles of ash floating down the stream. Starfire was really going at them, and most of them seemed to be ignoring Beast Boy because of it. Most.

He raised his shamshirs as four approached and began circling him yet again. He was ready this time. He knew their strategy. They bombard their enemies with tackles from every direction, disorienting them and making it so they can't fight back; that wasn't stopping Starfire, though. She would slash the creatures as they passed and maybe toss a kick or a punch at others when the sword was not a possibility. She certainly looked the warrior princess she was in that armor. Sure, she had seemed educated in battle during their crime fighting exploits, but none of them had ever seen her when she used a sword or any other manner of weaponry.

Screeching brought Beast Boy back to the present, and he somersaulted to avoid two attacks from the things he decided to call Jumpers, given how they attacked. He charged forward, swerving to avoid a third attack, and ran straight for the Jumper on the platform adjacent to the one he was on, sword raised to strike. The Jumper took his challenge and leapt forward.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Starfire brought her blade down forcefully, and the last of the strange creatures was cut clean in half before turning into ash and joining most of it's other comrades down the flowing stream of water. She had counted twenty-seven, on her part, not counting the first few killed, or rather dispelled. She would guess it had been some form of conjuration magic that created them. Apparently there was much Raven could do that none of them knew of. Of course, there was the possibility that this demon had altered her powers somewhat, but that seemed unlikely. It was still Raven they were dealing with, after all. Even the summoning of the creatures in the forest could be attributed to her abilities, as explained by the mage.

"Whew. I thought that was never gonna' end." the alien princess heard Beast Boy say tiredly from up on the platforms, and she looked to see him sitting on the ground, leaning back on his hands, legs hanging over the edge.

"But I see you have fared well." Starfire said with a cheery smile, noticing the ash on and around the platform. They were both still alright too... minus a few scratches. Thinking of that, the alien girl put her hand lightly to her face and grimaced when she felt a sting of pain from the large scratch on her face. It extended from the top of her nose to the bottom of her left cheek. Sighing, she removed the metal plating from her wrists as well as her leather gloves and set them and her flamberge on dry land next to the discarded torch. She then knelt down into the current, dipped her hands into the cool liquid, and began washing the scratch. This task stung as well, but it had to be done. They had no supplies and the wound had to be cleaned out to avoid infection if possible.

"I found something." came Beast Boy's voice, and the alien girl stood, taking her sword in hand and grabbing the discarded pieces of armor. In case they needed the torch again, she doused it and placed it in one of the leather loops on her belt, likely another sword sheath, but it would do for holding a torch as well. Starfire then began treading through the shallow water to where she heard Beast Boy's voice come from. She wasn't nervous or anxious, given the relatively calm manner in which he had called out to her. She found said changeling still standing on the platforms, but he had moved to one on the far side of the room, blades sheathed at his sides. The thing before him looked to be another lever.

"Do you suppose it opens the next door?" Starfire asked as she sheathed her weapon on her back and began reequipping the gloves and armor plates. Beast Boy nodded as he observed the lever. "Do you believe it could be booby-trapped?" she asked further, and he thought for a moment.

"Not sure. Guess there's only one way to find out, though." he replied with a shrug as he placed a hand on the lever.

"Should you not first clean out your wounds?" she asked worried, seeing the large bite mark on his right shoulder. Beast Boy shrugged again.

"It probably won't get infected, given my healing, and we're kinda' short on time. It's already started to heal anyways."

Nodding reluctantly, Starfire took her flamberge in her hands once more and turned to face the barred door. Beast Boy pulled the lever, and the door opened, revealing a lit room beyond. The two waited for something else to happen. One... two... nothing.

"Huh, well, I guess that's tha-" Beast Boy started, but the moment he released the lever, it shifted back to it's original position and the door shut once more, the thick metal bars locking it. He tried once more, but the same result was reached; the door only remained open while someone was holding the lever.

"Hmm..." the changeling said confused as he thought once more,and, after a moment, an idea seemed to come to him as he perked up. "I bet there's another lever on the other side of that door!" he stated confidently.

"How can you be sure?" Starfire asked looking up at him. He simply shrugged again, though he had a cheery grin on his face.

"Because I've beat Zelda like one hundred and _fifteen_ times." he said with a short laugh, and Starfire gaped at him. That number seemed _extremely_ high to her. It didn't seem natural for anyone, even _him_, to engage in a single video game that much. At seeing her face, the changeling let out another laugh.

"I was exaggerating. I've just played it a lot." he explained lightheartedly, and Starfire nodded in understanding, slightly alleviated by that fact. She was still unsure of how a video game fit into their current situation, but she decided to trust him. He had been correct before.

"Okay, so I shall find the second lever once you open the gate." she said, getting back on track, and Beast Boy nodded in agreement, preparing to pull the lever again. Starfire sheathed her sword and hurried over to the door, jumping out of the water for the first time since entering this room. She was greatly pleased to not splash with every step she took, such a relief!

"Ready." she said to Beast Boy once she was in position, and he pulled the lever. Starfire quickly rolled underneath the door once she was sure she would fit. She wanted to take as little time as possible because, even if the changeling said he was alright, pulling that lever could not have been good for his injured shoulder.

As soon as she passed the threshold of the door, it shut behind her. She had entered a relatively short hallway with crevices in the walls and another door across from her. Luckily, this one wasn't locked. She cautiously ventured forward, skimming the floors and walls for any traps. She found none, but she did find another lever; Beast Boy had been correct! She quickly pulled it, opening the door she had come through once more.

Beast Boy charged inside, swords raised, ready to strike anything that dared to twitch... which in this case was nothing. He blinked.

"Huh... I was expecting some giant lizard guy holding a large axe or a tree." he said as he lowered his blades, glancing around casually. Why would someone be carrying a tree? At the confused look Starfire had on her face, he let out another light laugh and waved his hand dismissively as if to say it wasn't important. Starfire nodded and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall.

The two decided to take a short break in the small hallway, catch their breath and gather their bearings. It would also give Beast Boy's shoulder a little time to heal. Given his fast healing, it might actually help, especially if it had already begun to heal before. Starfire used this time to observe him discretely, but not to look for any physical injury. Actual death, caused by ones own hands, didn't sit well with most, especially the first kill.

He seemed to be alright, though. Perhaps even _he_ had killed before, but that was impossible to tell under the circumstances. Killing the things they had just seen was like killing holograms, if one could equate it to such a thing. Perhaps killing something on a video game would be a more accurate analogy. They weren't real. They simply vanished, as though they had never been in the first place, nothing to remind you of the deed you had just committed, no thought to the life you just ended. Such was not the case when killing something real, not when blood was involved, and particularly not when that blood was literally on your hands. Starfire had and would always despise such things and would do everything in her power to avoid such outcomes if possible. She would fight, should the need arise, so others didn't have to bear such burdens.

After a few moments of rest, the duo decided to continue through the temple. In the next few rooms, they encountered no puzzles and only encountered more enemies after climbing an insufferable and innumerable amount of stairs that spiraled upward, longer than the first staircase. In the room right after that, they had run into more of the stone snakes, but the task of defeating them proved much easier than before, given they had weapons.

In a few more moments, they were entering the next room, a room that was much larger than almost every other room they had encountered thus far. This one, though, was shaped like a dome with a second floor running along the rim, large pillars holding it up, and it appeared to contain more structural damage than any other room in the temple. More tattered banners hung from the walls, and many large cracks cut through said walls, leaving rubble in crumbled heaps in a lot of places. No lights were lit in this room, but moonlight poured in from the giant windows that took up the far wall, along with a giant hole in the roof; there may as well have not even _been_ a roof for how little it did.

However, the thing that most stood out to the alien princess was the aura of magic that was focused at the black, two-inch tall circular pedestal in the center of the room; they had found the center of the domain!

_BB Centered POV:_

"You feel it too, do you not?" Starfire asked the changeling as he looked around, and he nodded, knowing she meant the supposed magic trail lead them here.

"Yeah, is this th-" Beast Boy was cut off by a sudden bout of maniacal laughter, and the duo quickly snapped to attention, scouring the room for the source. This was the first time they had heard something resembling human mannerisms since entering Raven's mind, and Beast Boy had a feeling he knew who it was. The laugh sounded the same as it had the last time they met, only with a touch of crazy thrown in the mix this time.

He proved correct when a figure, the source of the laughter, rose from the pedestal in the center of the room. Donned in the same robes as Raven, only pink instead of blue, there was no one it _could_ be except Raven's cheery, upbeat emotion. There were differences, though. Symbols of snakes covered her outfit, glowing a brighter pink than her clothes, and a sinister grin could be seen beneath her drawn cowl. Beast Boy had a baaad feeling about this.

"I see you have finally made it!" she exclaimed, splaying her arms out wide like some sort of host, and she bowed. "This is my humble abode. Though, I've made a few renovations, as you've probably guessed." Beast Boy's eyes flickered to the tattered wall banners and the rubble all over the place and then to the gaping hole in the roof before returning his gaze to what used to be Happy. Yeah, renovations.

"Did you have much trouble reaching this place?" she asked 'graciously', and Starfire and Beast Boy exchanged nervous glances. It didn't take a genius to realize she wasn't herself, and it was looking more and more like they wouldn't get out of this without a fight. Suddenly, Happy appeared right in front of Starfire, who took a step back in shock.

"It appears my dear friends have given you quite the scratch." she said, looking at the large cut on the alien girl's face, and her tone sent shivers down Beast Boy's spine. Why did she sound happy about that? As quickly as she had appeared in front of Starfire, the mage was suddenly floating over the pedestal.

"Well now, that won't due." Happy continued with a fake pout, unnerving Beast Boy even more, and his animal instincts were once again driving him crazy, though this time for whole new reasons. Danger, and a lot of it! "They should know better than to cause pain to others without putting them out of their misery." Another creepy smile then spread across her lips, and her tone became vicious yet somehow pleased. "Perhaps they learned that from me." The next instant, she had thrust her arm upwards in an uppercut type motion, and a line of stone spikes erupted from the ground, quickly advancing on the two companions. They both shrieked in astonishment and scattered just in time before the spikes that shot out beneath their feet turned them into skewers. It didn't end there, though, as more spikes followed them. While this was going on, something occurred to Beast Boy.

"Hey, Star?" he hollered over to her between dodging the spikes.

"Y-yes?" the alien girl managed to return as she too dodged them, cutting others with her flamberge when she couldn't.

"What does 'sadistic' mean?" He remembered seeing it on the first piece of paper in the stack, right below 'Happy's Domain'. He guessed it had something to do with this new Happy.

"To-" she dodged a spike. "take pleasure in the pain of others." A sinking feeling filled Beast Boy's stomach at the response; this _definitely_ wouldn't be fun.

"Please, friend, we do not wish to harm you!" Starfire tried reasoning with the attacking mage, to no avail, as she cut another spike before it could reach her.

"That's fine! I'll simply inflict fatal and crippling wounds and watch as you both die in agony!" Sadistic screamed , well, sadistically, and Starfire's expression became highly apprehensive. Beast Boy mirrored her sentiments perfectly; that sounded _beyond_ creepy! The changeling then realized he was closing in on some of the pillars that held up the second floor, the area beyond them covered in shadows. Alright!

He angled his jumps, so he ended up flying into the darkened area, Sadistic losing sight of him once he did. The spikes stopped since she had nothing to aim for. The green teen wasted no time to catch his breath, though, and quickly sheathed his swords, using the shadows created by the new cieling to run in the direction Starfire was fighting. He took out two throwing knifes as he ran, one in each hand, and threw them at sadistic when he could see her between pillars. She deflected them with her black magic, only being distracted for a moment before returning the assault to Starfire, not even bothering with him. Beast Boy grumbled silently at the metaphoric slap to the face.

'_If the array is placed and activated, she too will change back to normal!_' Beast Boy nearly tripped when he heard Raven's urgent voice in his head, and he froze, glancing around.

"Raven?" he asked, but there was no response. Unsure if he was hearing things, the changeling decided to give it a shot. What did they have to lose, anyway? "Starfire!" he whispered urgently as he neared the pillars she was fighting next to. Hearing him, Starfire did something that left the changeling flabbergasted; she threw her sword at Sadistic! It seemed to work, though, because sadistic had to teleport away momentarily to avoid the random and sporadic attack, giving Starfire enough time to hide behind one of the pillars before the mage reappeared.

"What'd you do that fo-"" Beast Boy started to whisper emphatically and wide eyed as he sat behind the pillar next to hers, but a sudden wave of stone spikes passing inches from his face made him stop. Starfire, catching her breath, gave him a pointed look that told him it wasn't an important detail at the moment. Nodding as he mentally slapped himself in the face, Beast Boy quickly took out the folded pieces of paper and chalk from a pouch on his chest and told her his plan.

"Do you think you'll be able to draw the array if I distract her?" The alien girl seemed more than a little surprised by the sudden proposition, but the changeling continued before she could say anything. "We can't exactly hit her to knock her out. She's always flying up there,and, if the other Raven was any hint, I don't think we can beat her without a plan we don't have time to make." After a brief pause, cut short by the deafening sound of more spikes crashing into the walls—apparently Sadistic was now searching all over the room for them when they refused to reappear—Starfire reluctantly nodded her consent to the plan.

Wasting no more time, Beast Boy set the items down and hurriedly began climbing the pillar he had just been using as a refuge, using the intricate designs in the architecture as handholds. Luckily, he was good at climbing, so he reached the top in a relatively short time, relative to normal people, that is: people who can sleep in on a regular basis, order pizza without having to enter a philosophical debate with a certain metal man, and, oh yeah, _not_ have giant stone spikes nearly _impaling _them!

As soon as he was on solid ground again, Beast Boy took off along the curved upper floor until he was standing almost directly in front of a still searching and very destructive Sadistic, there were even more holes in the room now, most of them in the walls.

"Hey!" the changeling hollered, catching her attention, and he taunted her with a few childish, yet greatly amusing to him, faces. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Starfire quietly making her way to the pedestal in the center of the room, papers and chalk in hand. Sadistic hadn't noticed her! Yahtzee!—bingo was boring, yahtzee was way more fun! Sadistic, in response to his taunts, smiled evilly and flew towards him, apparently deciding that a new tactic was needed and probably also that attacking him would do as long as she still got to cause someone pain. Beast Boy froze in his mocking and dove to the side with a yelp, tumbling clumsily, right before Sadistic plowed through him with a giant stone slab she had sent at him from the ground floor.

Even if he wasn't necessarily the brightest on the team, Beast Boy couldn't help but notice that, through this entire fight, none of the stone she had moved had been encased in her usual black energy, and she hadn't said her mantra once. ...It almost reminded him of... He didn't get to continue with his depressing train of thought when he was forced to dodge more large chunks of stone thrown at him, barely avoiding most of them. His luck didn't stand, and soon a large brick became the new best friend of his abdomen, knocking all the air out of his lungs and sending him stumbling backwards. Luckily, it sailed over him once he fell and didn't crush his head or any other part of him.

Panting, Beast Boy got back to his feet, throwing a few knives at Sadistic in the process, ones she easily sidestepped. She then raised a hand, the sinister smile never leaving her face, and sent a series of softball-sized rocks at him. He, in response, took out his twin shamshirs and began hitting them aside, the impacts sending vibrations up and down his arms that left them numb. As the two teens continued this routine, the rocks started coming faster; Sadistic was toying with him, yet Beast Boy was still struggling to keep up!

He grew frustrated when he began missing more and more of the rocks, and they slammed into him, leaving many painful, future bruises all over. When one painfully hit his shin, he cried out in pain and stumbled slightly. He was unable to avoid or block the next rock that hit his shoulder or the one that followed, hitting him in the gut. His eyes bulged as he once again found himself depraved of air, and he fell to the floor, swords dropping from his grasp.

Sadistic casually walked up to his panting form and picked him up by the collar of his armor, slamming him against the wall.

"I find this ability greatly amusing to use on others, being able to move stone without tiring or limitations." she snickered as his head lolled forward from exhaustion. "It reminds me of that geomancer: Terra." At the mention of the name, Beast Boy's breath caught in his throat, eyes wide as he thought of the mentioned girl; he still missed her sometimes, even though it was years later.

"Uh-oh, did I strike a nerve?" the mage sneered cruelly. "What's the matter, wishing you had her back? Or maybe now you're beginning to wish Raven was actually more like Terra, the little girl who would actually laugh at your lame jokes." Beast Boy shut his eyes tight, trying his best to ignore her biting words, and he suddenly found himself wishing he was deaf.

"What, you gonna' mope now?" a sinister chuckle escaped her. Great joy did she take in mocking him in such a way. "You failed to save your last 'girlfriend'. She doesn't even want anything to do with you anymore: doesn't even remember who you are! Can't say I miss her, though. The 'poor' lost girl who needed coddling at every turn, only to run away when she didn't have the brain power necessary to realize the world _wasn't_ out to get her, that she wasn't important enough for that selfish and foolish notion! How pathetic! You sure know how to pick 'em don't you? You, yourself, are nothing but a lame joke!"

Time seemed to momentarily freeze on Beast Boy as he felt his eyes snap open, his pupils constrict, and his breathing grow ragged. Suddenly, the only thing he could feel was the blood coursing through him to every inch of his being, almost as if to resynchronize his limbs to his brain. The only thing he could hear was his pulse, drumming loudly in his ears to a tribal rhythm he couldn't recognize, as rage consumed his mind, a familiar rage that offered him concise and dangerous clarity. Not the clarity of worldly affairs or the answers to deep philosophical questions, but clarity of battle. Clarity in dealing pain!

He suddenly shot his head forward, smashing it into the forehead of this _thing_ that dared to spout such _garbage_. In the next instant, he had picked up his discarded swords and began moving them in a flurry, clanging across the dark energy shield _it_ had constructed in a feeble attempt at defense. His hits played to the tribal beat of his pulse in a mordacious tirade of fury, pain no longer registering in his mind. Each hit knocked the demon-possessed girl back a step, bringing her closer to the edge until she lost her footing on some inapposite debris. Before she could fall, though, Beast Boy dropped one of his swords and grabbed the front of her cloak with his now free hand, his other blade raised for a final strike.

A single instant. That's all it can take to change someone's life, for better or for worse. In one such instant, the black shamshir was rushing through the air for the killing blow, and in the next, Beast Boy's battle-clear, yet rage-clouded mind caught up with him. He stopped, eyes widened in his own bout of shock, the blade tip less than an inch away from the face of a wide eyed and alarmed Sadistic.

Had he really almost... Over _what_? A few jeering words? Raven... She looked like Raven, was _part_ of Raven, and he had almost _killed_ her. Her words shouldn't have made him as angry as they had, but maybe the fact that it had looked and sounded like they came from _her_, words he always dreaded the thought of her saying, made him snap. The changeling's stomach lurched as he felt a wave of nausea hit him, and, if he could have, he would have turned even more green.

Suddenly, Sadistic's eyes grew wider, and Beast Boy was thrown backwards by a wave of her black energy. His blade fell from his hand when he slammed into the wall, air flooding out of his lungs yet again from the force of the impact. Continuing her downward descent, Sadistic then shot forward, or rather backwards, flying towards Starfire. No! He could see she was almost done! He couldn't let the plan fail _now_, not when they were so close!

Lucky for him, the shock wave that had shot out from Sadistic when she jumped broke the weathered pillars holding up the section of the platform he was sitting on. The platform started to fall at a downward angle. Beast Boy used it as a ramp, jumping before it made contact with the floor below, and hit the floor running after the mage, not bothering to look for his swords and ignoring the shooting through his limbs. Just as he did so, though, Sadistic sent a series of large boulders and more stone spikes at Starfire, who was too busy hurriedly putting the finishing touches on the array to notice. Beast Boy was about to cry out to her, but stopped when a dome of black energy surrounded Starfire, effectively blocking and repelling every attack aimed at her. Beast Boy sighed heavily in relief, even if he was infinitely confused.

Enraged at the interruption, Sadistic continued her flight, charging energy in one hand, and hit the shield with deadly force. Sparks of energy instantly flew in every direction at the contact, forcing Beast Boy to stop his run and shield his face, continuing to watch through squinted eyes. Sadistic held her hand in place, seeming to deal more damage the barrier over time.

After a few short moments, the shield exploded, sending both the mage and an extremely surprised Starfire flying in opposite directions while Beast Boy was knocked off of his feet. Both other combatants hit the outer walls of the dome, and both slumped to the ground, though, Sadistic managing to remain on her hands and knees. Beast Boy was too surprised to move as he stared, dumbstruck. He was sure Starfire was out cold until she slowly struggled to prop herself up on one arm, trembling from newly discovered fatigue.

"B-Beast Boy, now!" was all she could manage urgently through gritted teeth, snapping him out of his reverie, and he nodded curtly, sprinting for the array. He wasn't the only one, though. Sadistic raised a hand, and a wave of spikes moved towards the pedestal. Beast Boy had one shot; if the spikes reached their destination before he did, the array would be destroyed. The seconds seemed to slow to agonizingly long spans of time as he watched the approaching spikes out of the corner of his eye. In a last-ditch attempt, Beast Boy dove.

He slid across the floor on his side and slammed his hand down on the array as soon as he was in range, eyes shut tight. He suddenly felt light-headed as the array seemed to activate—yes!—drawing his energy. At the notion that he had not yet been impaled, the changeling cracked a wary eye open, only to widen them when he noticed the spike inches from his nose. It had stopped, though; that _had_ to be a good sign. Beast Boy then felt as though he was still being drained, the array needing more energy as it began to glow, and a wave of white energy expanded from the center, momentarily blinding the green teen.

The last thing he remembered seeing once the light began to fade was the faint image of Sadistic falling to the ground, seemingly unconscious, before he too blacked out.

* * *

I ended up taking out one of the rooms from the temple because the chapter would have been a little dragged out if it had stayed. Hope you like it, though :D

Please review if time permits, and, if you sneezed while reading this, bless you.


	9. Forest Temple

FelynxTiger: You and I are completely on the same wavelength with the beast thing. I originally made it so BB and Starfire did have their powers and he _did_ change into the Beast, but I decided that would make these temples too easy for them, especially with Starfire's starbolts.

Ash Veran: Me too. :D

Avatarcatz2323: Thanks, I'm having a lot of fun with the fight scenes.

yooper0987: Good, hope you continue to like it. :)

Sasse1892: I know, right? I don't know what it is about the crazy characters like her and Azula, but they are pretty awesome!

Stella-s55: Thanks, I intend to :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

This chapter is quite less action packed than the rest, but I hope you like it. Onward!

* * *

_Beast Boy Centered POV:_

Beast Boy slowly felt consciousness nagging at him, but it was muffled by how tired he felt. He wanted to sleep... for a week or maybe two; he couldn't be sure. Even so, he couldn't shake the feeling there was something he was supposed to be doing. He couldn't figure it out, but he knew whatever it was was really important. Finally, it became clear that consciousness was _not_ going to stop nagging him, so he grudgingly gave in to it. When he did though, he became gradually aware that someone was running their fingers through his hair. Wow, it felt nice. Even _better_ than sleeping... So relaxing and soothing to his aching head. He was about to contentedly fall asleep again when his mind at last caught up with him, and he realized where he was supposed to be. So... who was running their fingers through his hair?

The changeling cracked his eyes open to find his vision blurred—man that was lame! Why couldn't it be like it was in those action packed movies where the characters were fine as soon as they woke up, guns a blazing and ready to take down every bad guy in a one mile radius? Grumbling silently to himself about why things couldn't be fair, Beast Boy found he could discern a pink figure looking down at him, confusing him to the point that he stopped his silent ramblings. No one he knew wore pink. Well, okay, there was... But, no, it couldn't be... Could it? Slowly, his eyesight finally started to come into focus, and, sure enough, it was Raven's pink-clad emotion, now back to normal. Beast Boy became painfully aware that his head was _not_ on the cold stone floor, but instead in her lap as she ran her fingers soothingly through his hair.

"Aah!" he let out a very manly shriek out of shock, and he sprung to his feet, immediately standing at attention as his face flushed. Raven would _kill_ him if she knew where he had been laying! Happy and Starfire, kneeling next to Raven's pink-clad emotion, giggled at his reaction. Beast Boy then noticed their surroundings.

The dome was now fixed and lit quite nicely by a large chandelier hanging from the top of the roof. While the now repaired banners, each adorning the symbol of a raven on them, were now pink, they were definitely better than the gray and torn banners of before. The changeling also noticed his swords had been retrieved and returned to their sheaths, along with the throwing knives he had used. The thing that eased quite a few of his concerns was the fact that Starfire appeared to be alright now; the large cut on her face had even been healed.

"Well, good morning, sleepyhead." Happy greeted cheerfully with a wide smile on her face as both she and Starfire stood. Even if he still feared bodily injury that could be inflicted on him any moment from the previous situation, Beast Boy couldn't help the wave of relief that washed over him at the sight of the cheery emotion back to her original self. Suddenly, though, he remembered the fight... what he had almost done to her. Sure, she had been reminding him of some things that still hurt, even after so many years, but it hadn't actually been Happy saying them. _She_ didn't deserve what he almost did. At these remembered thoughts, Beast Boy instantly wrapped Happy in a tight hug, even surprising the rather laid back girl—or part of a girl, he supposed. He then quickly took a step back, so he could look her face to face.

"I'm so, sorry! I can't believe I almost-" the frantic changeling began, but was cut off by Happy lightly conking him on the top of the head with her fist. He blinked.

"Don't worry about it!" she said with a cheery laugh. "I was being a douche anyway!" Beast Boy blinked again, unsure of how to respond. Partly due to the girl's reaction, but mostly because of how _weird_ it sounded for Raven to say 'douche'. After a short pause to consider if he had actually heard her correctly, he started giggling to himself out of amusement, confusing the other two who regarded him strangely, albeit slightly amused, by his random laughter.

"Haha, you said, 'douche'!" the changeling said lightheartedly as he continued to laugh, Happy and Starfire joining in, even more amused that he found it so funny. Happy's eyes then drifted to Beast Boy's hair, and a dreamy expression enveloped her features.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to-"

Before she could finish the comment, she clapped a hand over her mouth, making the rest come out muffled and unintelligible. Beast Boy and Starfire became greatly befuddled when she creased her own brow, confused, and tried to remove her hand from her mouth. It was no use, even when using her free hand.

"Wm-m hm gm hmg!" she asked, seemingly yelling at the sky. Though, still no words were understandable to Starfire or Beast Boy. She then paused, listening intently and nodding occasionally as if someone was answering her question.

"Wmm, HMM! Hm wmm mm wm hm-mgh!" she continued fervently, then paused to be 'answered' again, tapping her foot impatiently with her free hand placed on her hip. Starfire and Beast Boy exchanged glances, question marks plastered all over their faces. What in the name of all that was tofu was going on?

"Whm, hm mm-gh nhm-... Mgo, hm-" she then paused mid-sentence as though a revelation hit her, and she sweat-dropped. "Hmm..." She was then allowed to remove her hand from her mouth by whatever unseen force had moved it there in the first place and looked back at Starfire and Beast Boy with a sheepish smile.

"Heh, I guess I wasn't supposed to mention that." Starfire and Beast Boy laughed nervously at what they had just seen, neither sure of what to make of it. But, then Beast Boy perked up as a realization of his own struck him, more memories from the fight now coming back to him, and he looked up too.

"Raven?" he called out, and there was a pause, Starfire looking at him perplexed.

"...Yes?" came the tentative reply, and the changeling grinned widely, the expression of the alien girl standing next to him brightening as well.

"You can talk to us?" he asked excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Well, of coarse I can. It's _my_ mind, isn't it?" the empath replied simply, and Beast Boy never thought he would be so happy to hear her tone even a little condescending. It brought a lopsided, one-fanged grin to his face.

"So, why couldn't we hear you just now?" he asked confused, pointing to Happy.

"Because I was only talking to her."

"Why? What were you guys talk-"

"It's none of your business!" the empath snapped quickly, causing Beast Boy to jump and let out a surprised 'eep'. He hadn't expected her to respond so irritably. Whatever it was must be _really_ personal. Hey! At least there wasn't a window for her to chuck him out of! ...Though, in retrospect, she could probably make one to throw him out of... He didn't know how those things worked, but it seemed to make sense. Sort of...

"Heh, so, why havn't you been saying anything?" the changeling asked nervously, trying to change he subject to avoid such an outcome.

"Well, I did during the fight, but...I've been meditating." the empath replied after a slight pause, all anger gone from her voice, and Beast Boy's nervous grin faded. He didn't know how long they had been here and suddenly felt pressed for time.

"Right, we should keep moving, then." he said, now more serious. "We're visiting... uh... the gray one next, right?"

"Actually, no. Next will be Brave. You're taking a different path than you did a few years ago since you aren't trying to get to the Door. You passed Brave's domain last time; she had to come find you." came Raven's disembodied reply, and Beast Boy nodded. That was pretty straightforward. It was like being able to pass over certain levels in video games, or at least, that's how he thought about it.

"Alright then! Onwar-" Beast Boy paused when he realized Starfire and Happy were no longer next to him. Confused, he looked around and found them at one of the far walls, admiring one of the large, now pink and untattered, draperies hanging there. Starfire then said something that made Happy hop up and down with excitement, clapping her hands in a very Starfire-esque manner. Boy, did _that_ look strange. It reminded him of when the two had been switched and Raven was Starfire and Starfire was Raven and they had to fight the puppet guy who took the souls of Robin, Cyborg, and himself and they had to learn how to use each others' powers and they were still themselves personality-wise and it looked funny and- Focus!

"Uh..." Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head bemusedly, returning his thoughts to the present. How had the two gotten over to that side of the room so fast, anyway?

"Happy!" Raven bellowed, and both Starfire and the pink-clad emotion stopped abruptly at the empath's displeasure, Happy's mouth closed in a tight line.

"Sorry, Ravey." she apologized with a guilty grin.

"It's RAVEN! Ra-_ven_" Raven shouted, peeved. Why must everyone use a nickname for her, even her own emotions? She didn't understand! What was so wrong with _her_ name?

"But, that's not nearly as fun to say as 'Ravey'." Happy replied with a laugh like it was the most obvious thing in the world while she and Starfire rejoined Beast Boy.

"Happy!..." Raven seethed, and Beast Boy was almost sure he could hear her teeth grinding together from frustration.

"So," Starfire interrupted, nervous that a fight might break out. "Where is it we shall venture to next?"

"Next is Brave's domain." Happy replied simply, not at all unsettled by Raven's anger. "Interesting place, too, though things are likely to jump out at you."

"Things like..." Beast Boy asked, looking for a little clarification.

"Oh, you know, tigers, jaguars, ax-wielding psychopaths. The usual." Happy replied with a nonchalant shrug, and Beast Boy's jaw dropped.

"The _usual_? What's a _bad_ thing to run into, a T-rex?" he asked, flailing his arms wildly.

"No, silly. Minotaurs." Happy replied with a giggle. Beast Boy face-palmed. Raven's voice then cut into the conversation.

"Happy, I'll need you to stay here." she said, anger seemingly gone once again, and the pink emotion looked up, slightly crestfallen and ready to object.

"But, I wan-"

"I need you to meditate. It might help." Happy's words and protests died on her lips at Raven's tone. It wasn't angry or snide. It was serious and even a little desperate, causing Beast Boy's ears to droop noticeably and Starfire's expression to sadden. Without any further argument, Happy nodded, her demeanor uncharacteristically serious.

"Later, guys." she said with a wave as she hurried over to the black pedestal, sitting lotus style in the center. After a moment, she began to levitate as she quietly chanted Raven's mantra. Somehow, it eased Beast Boy nerves to hear something so familiar, almost like things were back to normal again. Almost. Nodding to Starfire, who returned the action, the two turned and began their trek out of the temple.

_Unknown Location:_

"Sir." the Acolyte said as he entered the chambers of the monarch, Rorden Thalmus. The small room was quite cluttered, and a myriad of alchemical odors wafted through the rather confined space, along with the scent of ancient books ant other such artifacts. Said artifacts were placed on almost every surface available, minus the table used for alchemical alterations and other scientific inquiries. The monarch was currently sitting at his equally cluttered desk, engrossed in examining a very old text regarding something the younger member would neither be able to understand nor fathom.

"What is it?" he replied, English accent showing and his tone a warning to the lower ranking member that this had better be important to interrupt his ceaseless yet imperative studies.

"I have been asked to inform you that, while the vessel has indeed shown the appropriate signs, any attempts at locating her have failed for a little over twenty-four hours." the Acolyte replied humbly, understanding his superior's time was far more important than his own. The monarch looked up at the reply, troubled, though he didn't show it; this was indeed problematic, a problem that could not be overlooked. Closing the book gently as to not hinder the ancient pages, the monarch stood.

"I shall see to this immediately. Gather the council." he replied evenly, and the Acolyte bowed out, hurrying along to complete his next given task. Rorden remained for a moment and looked at something on his cluttered desk. It was a photo of the dark-clad, violet-haired young mage, who so foolishly called herself a 'Titan', battling the villain known as Dr. Light. Why would she bother with such trivial things when she possessed so much potential? Sighing incredulously, the monarch turned and left the room to complete his own tasks. It was such a shame she couldn't have just given into fate and cooperated. Now things would become much more difficult and painful for her and anyone near her.

_BB Centered POV:_

After about an hour of flying once out of Happy's temple, Starfire and Beast Boy had finally come to Brave's domain and had entered the thick jungle that resided beyond the gate. At Raven's insistence they should walk occasionally to conserve energy, they had agreed, and Raven pointed them in the right direction to find the center of the domain.

A few hours later found the companions currently walking through the jungle's humid climate, and they decided to take a break. Having their powers back, any wildlife that had decided to attack them thus far had been easily warded off, and they luckily ran into no Minotaurs. Raven had also replaced their stuffy armor with their original clothes, so they weren't roasting as much. She said she would return them to them once they got closer to the center. The two companions tiredly slumped down, happy for the break. Beast Boy couldn't believe how warm it was; he didn't even remember Africa being this bad!

"Beast Boy," Raven suddenly began, catching his attention as he leaned his head back against a tree.

"Yeah?" he asked without opening his eyes.

"I thought you'd like to know, your armor isn't made from leather." the changeling's ears perked back up at that, and he looked up.

"Really?"

"Yes. I knew you would be opposed, so, instead, it's made from a reinforced pleather-esque microfiber material with a layer of chain mesh on the inside for a little more protection." Raven clarified.

"Pleather?" asked the green teen, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. He had never heard of it before, but it was a really funny word, in his opinion.

"Yes. Basically, plastic leather made from recycled rubber and other such things." Even though he didn't understand completely what that meant, Beast Boy knew that was good for him.

"Oh, that's really cool! So, no animal abuse?"

"Mm-mm." Raven answered as a 'negative', and Beast Boy felt a wave of relief wash over him.

"I'm all for that! Thanks, Rae-ven!" he added quickly, not wanting to anger her after she would take the time to do something so nice for him. Starfire had silently listened to the conversation, a joyful smile on her face. That was very considerate of Raven to take the time to do that for him. After all, the alien girl doubted the conjuration had been as simple as 'imagine what you want and 'poof' it's there'. Now she really wanted to talk to the stubborn empath regarding the green changeling, maybe clear a few things up or get her thinking of a few things.

Beast Boy looked to Starfire when she stood and started walking to the edge of the clearing.

"Where ya' goin', Star?" he asked, obviously opposed to her leaving the group alone.

"I must use the restroom." she replied, smiling at his worry. He nodded and made a silent 'oh' with his mouth.

_Starfire centered POV:_

Starfire stopped once she was sure she was far enough from the clearing that Beast Boy couldn't hear them.

"Alright, Starfire, I know you don't need to use the bathroom." Raven said. "No one does while inside someone's mind. The only 'physical' thing you need to take care of is sleep, and then only because your mind gets tired."

"Raven, you and I should talk." the alien girl said earnestly as she sat down on a rock, hand's folded on her knees.

"What about?" came the empath's slightly curious reply.

"Beast Boy." Starfire responded flatly, a small smile on her lips. There was a pause in which Raven started adding up the changeling's physical injuries thus far and came to the conclusion that they were all healing nicely and none were of any serious concern.

"What about him? Is something wrong?" the mage finally asked, not sure of what Starfire was talking about.

"No. Well, sort of, but not the same sense you are asking about." came Starfire's cryptic reply. "I am wishing to discuss his affections toward you. And, do not try to tell me you know nothing of them." she added quickly before Raven could say anything. "You are an empath. It would be hard to miss." There was another pause, and Starfire waited patiently for Raven to figure out how best to respond.

"I do know." she finally said at length. "I just haven't thought much about it." This seemed odd to Starfire at first because she knew Raven thought about _everything_ since she disliked being confused. Then the alien girl realized that may just be the problem. Of all the years the two girls had known each other, Starfire had never known Raven to be intimate with anyone besides Malichor, and that hadn't ended on a particularly happy note. Maybe Raven didn't know how to handle the idea of someone else feeling attached to her in the way Malichor had pretended to be. The alien princess doubted that was the entire story, though. After all, Raven was never one to only consider her own feelings or reactions. Some of it likely came down to Beast Boy as well. Starfire then recalled how downtrodden Beast Boy had been after Terra had left the team and then again after she betrayed them. He had been distant and more than depressed. He had been crushed. Perhaps Raven _was_ afraid, and not just for her.

"Are you afraid you might get hurt or that you could possibly hurt him?" she asked aloud, getting right to the point, however uncomfortable it may be for Raven to admit if this was the case. There was another pause.

"...I'm not exactly the easiest person to get close to." came the empath's quiet reply, and Starfire felt a pang of sadness at how heavyhearted and regretful her usually stoic voice sounded.

"I know." Starfire admitted with a sad sigh. "But, your ability to keep your powers under control has improved over the years and shall continue to improve. You shouldn't be afraid to get close to people anymore. And, not everyone will be like Malichor." She added, and, even if Starfire couldn't see the empath, she knew that had struck a chord with her.

"...That may be, but... I've been like this for so long, I don't really know what to do. I can't exactly just change on a whim." Raven replied somberly.

"But that is why you should spend much time with people who will try to get you to open up. Beast Boy especially can help you grow. Why not give him a chance? I know he cares for you, and I also know you care for him." Based on the stuttering that immediately followed, the statement had somewhat flustered Raven, and a cheery smile graced Starfire's features. "I saw it, Raven." she said simply, stopping the mage's stuttered attempts at failing to deny the claim.

"What do you mean?" she asked, feigning ignorance in an almost child-like manner, and Starfire giggled amusedly.

"Well, two things. One was how your cheerful emotion interacted with Beast Boy. That on it's own tells a great deal. The other thing is that I know these emotional embodiments are dressed in the same garb you don, simply with varying colors pertaining to the specific emotion. Though I'm sure Beast Boy didn't, I saw a _penny_ attached to a string around Happy's wrist. I know penny's themselves hold no sentimental meaning for you. After all, they are just pennies. At first I was confused, but then I remembered the day Beast Boy gave you that penny, the day your father attacked. He said it was good luck, and you have kept it since that day. I would assume you grabbed it before coming out here, given I have not seen you wear it before. It must mean a great deal to you, friend." Starfire knew she had hit the nail on the head when Raven, too dumbstruck, said nothing in response.

"You should give him a chance. You may be pleasantly surprised if you do." With those parting words, Starfire got up and walked back to the camp, leaving Raven to ponder over the conversation.

The temple looked to be one of the ancient Mayan Temples Starfire had seen on the channel of 'Discovery' when Robin could not find anything to watch. It had the pyramidal shape, and the walls appeared withered, water worn, and covered in moss. The temple looked rather strange in the middle of a thick jungle, since they were usually seen in fairly open spaces with trees in the background.

"What is it with the stairs in this place?" Beast Boy complained at seeing the few hundred or so steps that led to the entrance at the top of the structure.

"Perhaps they will become easier?" Starfire asked hopefully as they approached said stairs, not looking forward to them either, especially since they were no longer able to fly and were wearing their suits of armor once again.

These stairs were as bad as the first, if not worse due to the humid climate. Both teens felt ready to pass out by the time they reached the top. After a moment to catch their breath, they entered the temple. It was dark, yet again, so Starfire took out the torch she had kept from the last temple and lit it. The entrance walkway was much shorter, but the sight that greeted them on the other side of it was not friend to the super teens. More stairs. Sure, these ones were going down, but there appeared to be an identical number of them. Both teens hung their heads in exasperation.

"...Sorry, I don't usually have to walk this." Raven apologized.

"That's alright, still got my positive attitude." Beast Boy said, though it sounded partially forced. "No leather." with that, he actually did seem to brighten a little and began descending down the stairs.

_BB Centered POV:_

"I never wanna' walk up or down any more stairs in my life." Beast Boy groaned as he tried to catch his breath once they finally reached the bottom of what he dubbed the 'infinite staircase'; it never wanted to end—well, until that last part, anyway. Sure, down was usually easier than up, but not when your legs were tired.

"I would be perfectly fine if that were the case." Starfire agreed, though her alien strength left her much less out of breath after their trek. The temple was huge, but, unlike the last one, there wouldn't have been an obvious direction to go in if the magic trail hadn't been there. It led them through a side passage that brought them to a large room. As the two teens neared the center of the room, Beast Boy got an overwhelming sense of deja vu, though he couldn't for the life of him put his finger on what it was.

The room was practically a square with a second story on the far wall and at the sides, and there was one door to each side of both the first and second stories. The thing that was giving the changeling deja vu was the structure in the center of the room. Given the magic trail went down, it was probably some sort of elevator they needed to use. There were four large torches surrounding the elevator, each flame a different color: regular, green, blue, and purple. Something about this was definitely familiar...

When the two teens were a few yards from the center, four ghost type things suddenly appeared, startling them half to death: an orange one, a green one, a blue one, and a purple one, each floating next to the respective flames and each carrying a torch. Suddenly, the four corresponding flames moved from their original places to the torches the ghosts carried, and something made a loud 'click'. The elevator began to lower! No, they needed to go there!

"Hey, put those back! We need that elevator!" Beast Boy shouted before running forward to snatch the torch from the nearest one, which in this case was the orange one. The ghosts didn't respond. They simply laughed before vanishing into a swirl of flames. The only light in the room now came from Starfire's torch and a few small skylights in the ceiling.

"Man, what is with this demon?" Beast Boy seethed, Starfire walking up to join him, relatively more calm and collected.

"Actually, that wasn't the demon." Raven said, sounding slightly guilty.

"Huh?" came Beast Boy's intelligent reply. He was good at those.

"Well... my mind has certain defenses in it, and... given the current circumstances, I don't have complete control over them. They've recognized you two as something that doesn't belong here and activated." Raven explained culpably.

"It is nothing to feel sorry for." Starfire said earnestly, a reassuring smile on her face. "What must we do to continue through here?"

"You need to get the flames back." Raven replied, and the two teens nodded. Okay, it seemed simple enough. Get the fire and they could go down the elevator. Though, the 'why' escaped Beast Boy. How did fire power an elevator?

"Alright, so, where did those ghost things go?" the changeling asked, looking between the other six doors in the room.

"...That's the thing, it changes every time. Not even I know where they go." Raven responded, once again sounding a little guilty. Beast Boy let out an exasperated sigh, but he didn't want to make Raven feel worse, so he took in a calming breath and straightened up. "Alright, I _still_ got my positive atti-

He froze when his ears picked up the sound of something approaching before anyone else did, and he immediately whipped his swords out.

"What is it?" Strfire asked urgently as she too took her blade in hand.

"I hear something... above us!" he looked up, and Starfire followed his gaze, holding the torch up to reveal a dozen creatures of some sort.

"Okay, those aren't mine." Raven stated as the creatures flew at Beast Boy and Starfire. They were about a foot long with tails twice as long as their bodies, and their scales were a brownish-red. Beast Boy _totally_ knew what these were! And Raven said video games had no meaning, pshaw! How else would Beast Boy know those were Pseudodragons and that they had very... poisonous tails, uh-oh.

"Uh, Star, what's out for the tails! They're poisonous!" Beast Boy shouted over to her as he rolled under a swooping attack.

"How can you tell?" the alien girl asked as she parried a tail thrust and then cut the lizard in half, causing it to burst into a cloud of smoke. Awesome, so these things weren't real either! Beast Boy didn't have to feel as bad about killing them.

"Actually, Beast Boy is right, though I'm not sure how. Probably some random video game fact that somehow turned out to be correct." came Raven's voice, and Beast Boy almost returned the comment with an 'I told you so!', when he had to avoid multiple attacks, distracting him. Compared to the last battles they had been in, this one was a relative breeze. Though, there were a few close calls with the poisonous tails. At last, the final one was destroyed. Or rather, Beast Boy thought it was the last one until he heard the flapping of wings behind him. He immediately shot around, sword raised to attack, not noticing that the dragon didn't move to evade or initiate its own attack.

"Wait." Raven said suddenly, and the changeling paused in his strike just in time, blade point a few inches from the lizard. Surprisingly, the little dragon still hadn't moved. Beast Boy lowered his sword, and it again made no move to flee or strike. It was even looking at him expectantly. "Something's different about this one." Raven continued thoughtfully, and, as if to prove her right, the dragon made a light growling sound, almost as if it were talking to Beast Boy, what looked like a cheery grin on it's face. Beast Boy blinked. _That_ was odd. Why was it happy?

"I do not believe this one is dangerous." Starfire said, though her tone was slightly wary, and the dragon seemed to wag it's tail at her comment. She couldn't help but giggle lightly at that, and Beast Boy found he was beginning to like the little lizard too. These things were actually pretty cute, when they weren't trying to kill people.

"So, it really won't attack us?" the changeling asked, surprised by this change in events.

"It would appear not. It's almost like it wants to come with you." Raven said, also sounding taken aback. At the statement, the dragon began flapping his wings in a jittery motion, forked tongue hanging out of it's mouth. It seemed excited by the idea and almost looked like a dog excited to go for a walk.

"You really think?" Beast Boy wondered aloud, and Starfire nodded her consent.

"Well, little friend, would you liked to join us?" she asked happily, and the little dragon almost looked like it was going to lose it's balance and fall right out of the air from excitement. Beast Boy grinned widely.

"No way! This is _so_ _cool_!" the changeling gushed, almost matching the dragon's enthusiasm, and Starfire giggled again. "I'm namin' it Zippy!" he continued excitedly.

"Why?" Raven asked, and he could almost hear the quirked eyebrow in her voice.

"Because it needs a name." Beast Boy replied simply.

"No, I meant why 'Zippy'?" Raven clarified. The green teen simply blinked a few times until she got the picture. "Oh, right." There was no reason. He just wanted to name it Zippy. "By the way, 'it' is actually a 'he'." she added, almost as an after thought, and Beast Boy and Starfire looked puzzled. As far as they could tell, one couldn't tell the gender... the usual way.

"How can you be sure?" Starfire finally asked.

"Just trust me." was the simple response, and they decided it would be best not to question her.

"Alright! Now we have three members!" Beast Boy cheered enthusiastically, and Zippy seemed to cheer as well, letting out a small cry of joy, though no one could tell if it actually knew what they were saying.

"Shall we begin our search then?" Starfire asked, moving to the door on the left side of first floor, and Beast Boy nodded as both he and their new companion hurried to catch up.

* * *

The dragon companion was actually a last minute change, but I like it. I got the idea when I read psuedodragons are usually familiars. I know I kept referring to them as dragons, even though they aren't, but psuedodragon is just a pain to write over and over again. By the way, for those of you who don't know, that room was practically a carbon copy of a room in the Forest Temple from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. All of these temples have their basis from the temples in that game, and I couldn't help myself, so I added the room.

Hope you liked the chapter! :D

Please read and review! Please do! They're so delectable and darn good-looking! (edited quote from _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_)


	10. Humbling Hubris

I'm _so_ sorry this chapter is so late! I've never gotten such a bad case of writers block before. Hopefully the chapter is still a good one. I think it turned out better than I was expecting.

To Gabrielus Prime: I completely agree. So much awesome do those two things contain.

To FelynxTiger: Best game _ever_! I loved every bit of it, and no game has yet to compare in my book. Glad you liked last chapter. It's one of my favorites so far, even if there is very little action in it.

To Soulfulbard: Thanks, and I really loved writing those scenes. Many random laughing fits did my roommate have to endure while it was in the making. I love how you worded that, by the way: "getting comfy" with Happy. I'm glad to hear Zippy is liked. I wish I could have one.

To Wolfgirl666: She would know he was lying, but she can also tell he meant no harm by his complaining. I know what you mean about Lust, that will be an interesting chapter to write. And thanks, I work hard on this grammar. I's speaks da good eng'ish :D

To Taeniaea: thanks, I hope it continues to be cool.

I have such plans for the future! So may ideas in my brains! Each of the boss fights will get more difficult as the story progresses, understandably. Strangely enough, I have to say Rude is one of my favorites, the Rude in this, anyway. The final fight I have in her temple is one of my favorites.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, to my great sorrow. Oh well. On to the story!

* * *

_BB Centered POV:_

The team spent a good hour or so searching for the first three ghosts. They had found the first down the second hallway they searched on the ground floor. It had been the green one, and, before it would show itself to let them fight it, Starfire and Beast Boy had to solve a puzzle. It was like a larger version of those little games where one had to complete the picture by sliding the mixed up blocks, but it was impossible to pick them up. If Raven hadn't been there to give hints when Starfire seemed to get stuck—there was no way Beast Boy was solving it—they would have been there for a while longer; there were a lot of blocks.

The ending picture had been some sort of elaborate drawing where words were hidden in the image of a seven headed hydra. The words looked like they were in another language at first glance because they were all deformed, but, they were actually in English. They said, "Seven in One"—whatever that meant. Raven said the image was different and the words shouldn't have been there. She continued by saying that her subconscious must have put them there as assistance for later. Once the puzzle was solved, they had to fight the humanoid snakelike ghost, which was fairly simple compared to the puzzle. Fights were easy in Beast Boy's opinion. Puzzles: not so much. The ghost would occasionally shoot a small burst of green fire at them from the torch in its hand and would charge at them some times, flailing the torch in front of it. It took them a few minutes, but Starfire, Beast Boy, and Zippy defeated it.

The group of now three companions returned to the center room, returning the green flame to its original place. They then moved on and found the next ghost, the blue one, in the left hallway on the second floor. They had to solve a similar puzzle as before. The image was of an intricate seven point pentacle with a circle surrounding it, and the group was given the hint, "One is All". The fight was practically the same as the first, but the ghost had ended up singing a large portion of Starfire's hair. To say she didn't take that lightly would be the understatement of the year. They returned the flame to the center a few moments later.

The third ghost, the orange one, was at the end of the last hallway on the second floor. After solving another, larger puzzle, the group was greeted by the image of what looked like some sort of ancient city. In the canter was a broken castle, and flames were present everywhere throughout the city—a little creepy. The words in this one were not hidden in the image. They simply appeared at the top once the image was completed. "A Kingdom Without a King Falls to Ruin" was the hint.

"Well, that's helpful." Beast Boy said in a sarcastic and dry tone.

"I thought I was supposed to sound like that." Raven replied similarly. "These should make sense later. Maybe they're hints for a future fight.

"So we gotta' fight a hydra in a giant city where a star thingy comes in somewhere?" Beast Boy asked confused. This was why he didn't do puzzles.

"I don't think they are meant to be taken so literally." Starfire put in.

"What other way is there to take it?" Beast Boy asked, genuinely confused.

"It all depends on context, so you won't know until you are actually confronted with the problem it is referring to." Raven replied.

"Hmm..." the changeling said in thought. He supposed that made sense, so all they could do now was push on. "Okay, so where do we find the last ghost thing? We've looked through all these rooms now."

"Perhaps we should return to the center room? Maybe we will find a clue there." Starfire asked, and Zippy squeaked his agreement while Beast Boy nodded in thought. With that, the group returned to the center room, only to find it a tad darker than before. Cautiously glancing around, they stepped farther in, waiting for something to happen. Beast Boy had never been a fan of silence, and this was driving him crazy! Why wouldn't the ghost just show itself and fight them face to face? Mano-a-mano! Okay, so maybe it wasn't a man—actually, Beast Boy didn't know _what_ it was—but still! He was brought out of his silent ramblings when a rapier barely missed his head, only because Zippy had whacked it to the side with his tail, and the fourth ghost sailed past him.

"Hooah!" Beast Boy breathed out in alarm. _That_ was different. Since when did these things use swords? "Uuh, t-thanks, Zippy." the changeling stammered, very grateful to their new friend, and Zippy chirped in response.

"It would appear we have found the last spirit." Starfire added as she eyed the ghost's sword warily. If it could vanish like the others had, this could be a very... interesting fight. Beast Boy almost did a double take. Weren't they supposed to solve a puzzle first? Where was their puzzle? Funny, since it was Beast Boy who was grumbling about having to solve them, or watch Starfire solve them, in the first place, and now he would almost prefer them. Almost. Both super teens readied their weapons and Zippy took higher into the air, waiting for the ghost to make the first, or rather second, move. After a moment of simply watching them, almost as though it were sizing them up, the ghost complied, shooting a two foot wide purple fireball at them from out of its torch.

_Rorden Thalmus centered POV:_

Rorden Thalmus stood silently as the dragon kin before him explained the situation. They had searched everywhere for the girl, it had said. They had even found her once, only to lose her moments later. It had taken the Monarch a day to prepare everything and find the most likely location the girl had run to: the forest they now stood near. These creatures had had two days to find her, yet they had nothing. Rorden scoffed silently at there incompetence. Why his Ladyship kept these creatures around was beyond him. They seemed only to take up space and oxygen. No matter. Now that he was here with some very special help, things would go much smoother.

He waved his hand to shoo the dragon kin away, something it gladly consented to, and turned to those following him.

"Release them." he said curtly, and the nearest acolyte nodded, hurrying over to two large cages at the back of the small procession of cult members who had come along. Inside were the creatures that would find the girl. They specialized in such things. With long snouts and narrow bodies, these six foot monstrosities looked like some mixture of lizard and ant eater. Scales covered their bodies with the odd patch of fur here and there, and their shadowed eyes revealed soulless red irises with no pupils.

The acolytes looked terrified, but they need not worry. These beasts were hunters, trained only to track their targets. With their help, this search shouldn't take long.

With a creak, the large cage doors were released from their hinges, allowing them to fall forward. Anticipation in the Monarch grew as the cage doors slowly fell. If he himself hadn't been trained in the magical arts, he would have sworn something cursed them to fall at unnaturally slow speeds. Finally, they hit the ground with a loud clank, and the sound was like the gunshot that starts a race. As soon as it sounded, the creatures ran from their cage, disappearing into the forest in a matter of seconds. Rorden smiled.

They were one step closer to their goal.

_BB Centered POV:_

"Whoa!" Beast Boy awed, staring dumbfound at the room before them. It was easily over fifty feet high and wide, and the changeling couldn't even see the end of the room in the lower lighting, light only given off from a few skylights. The entire floor was checkered in black and white, each one more than a meter in height and width, and square chunks of the ceiling were missing. Crevices and holes in the walls and floor showed where traps would likely spring from if anyone got too close. He and Starfire walked down the short staircase—Zippy was sitting on Beast Boy's head with his tail coiled loosely around the changeling's neck—but, the instant they stepped foot on the checkered floor, they were alarmed to see the ceiling began closing in on them. Alarmed, the two stepped back onto the stairs, and in a few seconds, the ceiling, which was actually a large platform meant to squish them, landed on the ground. They were safe on the stairs, though, as the platform only landed on the checkered floor. What was odd that the holes in the ceiling coincided with a few of the tiles, giving someone a place to stand safely when the platform hit the ground.

Okay, now this was eerily familiar. What was all this from? Beast Boy had definitely seen it before. Doom? No, that wasn't it... Secret of Mana? Nope. Anyway...

"Wow, Raven, you did a really nice job." Beast Boy said matter-of-factly as he looked around the room. These defenses were quite nice, he had to admit. That didn't mean _he_ wanted to be going up against them, but beggars couldn't be choosers, right?

"Uh, thank you." Raven replied, unsure of how to respond to that _because_ they had to go up against them. The defenses didn't protect her mind from the larger demons, like Naðra, but they did work well against lesser demons and other mages fairly well. Or, in this case, Starfire and Beast Boy. And now Zippy.

"Watch out." the sorceress warned as the platform began to rise, drawing the trio's attention forward once again. Six stone snake statues, that they could see, had risen in a few of the empty squares but these ones used bows instead of scimitars. Once the platform was high enough to allow line of sight, the statues took aim and let loose their large, spear sized arrows.

Beast Boy shrieked as one went right over his head, only due to the quick reactions of Starfire, who had tripped him, and he landed on the stairs. Both he and a very wide eyed Zippy, clamped tightly to his head, breathed heavily from their near heart attacks.

"We must move quickly!" Starfire said urgently, sword already drawn as Beast Boy got to his feet, and the statues cocked their next volley of arrows.

"Alright. Uh, you should probably stay on my head, Zippy." the changeling said to his new friend, whom he didn't want crushed by the falling ceiling. Zippy nodded his consent eagerly, apparently having no thoughts of leaving in the first place as he was still holding tightly to Beast Boy's head. With that, Starfire and Beast Boy, his shamshirs now drawn as well, hurried onto the checkered floor just as the statues released their arrows. The statues farther back had missed enough that the arrows weren't an issue, but the other four were problems.

"Break them!" Starfire said as she cut an arrow just in time, sending it just enough to the side to miss both her and the changeling. Beast Boy reacted quickly, cutting the next one with both shamshirs. The final arrow, they sidestepped, still running towards their targets. What they hadn't noticed, or what Beast Boy hadn't noticed, was that the ceiling had started to fall once again. Starfire stopped him mid run, though, by outstretching an arm and nearly close-lining him.

Only when the ceiling was dangerously close did he realize why she stopped; they were under a safe spot. In the brief seconds before the platform landed, three arrows were sent their way. One went wide, and Starfire managed to cut the second two in one sweep, but a noise caught Beast Boy's attention. It was a slight whistle from their left. No, it was a series of closely nit together whistles. His eyes widened when he realized what it was, but Starfire hadn't noticed it. Acting instinctively, Beast Boy put himself between Starfire and the trap, resulting in six ninja stars embedding themselves in the back of his pleather armor. He stumbled against the new wall they had, thanks to the platform, gritting his teeth, and Starfire looked at him alarmed.

"Are you alright?" she asked worried.

"Yeah, fine. Could you just,-" he tried reaching behind himself to pull the ninja stars out, but wasn't having much luck. "I can't seem to get them." Starfire gasped at the sight of the six weapons in his back. "It's alright, they barely broke the skin. This armor rocks, Rae!" he said cheerily as he glanced upward.

"Sorry, I didn't warn you about the traps." was Raven's response. "They're motion detecting, and they don't just shoot ninja stars. There's poison darts, swinging guillotines closer to the walls, and tiles that fall down large pits when you step on them."

Before she could explain any further, the platform began to rise, prompting Starfire and Beast Boy to ready themselves and Zippy to tighten his grip on the changeling's head once more. As soon as there was enough room for him to move through, less room needed than for the others, Beast Boy ran for the nearest stone statue, the platform being a shield from the tall enemies.

He ran out from the side, making it nearly impossible for the statue to aim at him in time, jumped, and caught himself by digging one sword into the statues chest. The second blade quickly followed. The changeling then shut his eyes tight, waiting for the statue to start shaking to get him off, or maybe for it to punch him. Nothing happened. When Zippy spoke, in the gurgly, non-worded way he did, Beast Boy looked up to see the statues eyes weren't glowing anymore.

"No way!" the changeling exclaimed. That was easier than expected. He then looked back at Starfire to see she had moved as well, a few more of the spear arrows in the ground or cut in half. He followed the trail to see Starfire heading for another of the statues. Before she got there, she threw her sword at the statue! Why would she do that? The sword cut right through the snake's head, embedded down to the hilt, just as the other archers released their arrows. Beast Boy was about to call out to her in warning when she turned on the spot and simply punched the shaft of the arrow, breaking it in half.

Oh yeah, she didn't _need_ a sword.

_Starfire centered POV:_

The last room had proven more difficult than the others they had seen. By the end, all three companions had numerous cuts from the spear arrows and traps in the room; Starfire had nearly been cut in two by one of the swinging guillotines. Beast Boy had nearly fallen down one of the hidden pits. He had luckily caught himself on the side, but the ceiling had almost landed again. He had ended up bracing himself in the pit, feet on one end and hands against the other, in order to keep his fingers from being crushed. Needless to say, by the end, the group needed a break.

Now, about a half an hour later, they had entered a room similar to the dome in Happy's domain, only this one's only source of light was a few small skylights that appeared throughout the temple, and the walls were overgrown with vegetation. The largest skylight seemed to put a spotlight on the short, black pedestal that indicated the center of the domain.

"So, you finally made it." came Raven's echoed voice, but the sneer in the comment, told the trio it was not actually Raven who had spoken. Now they simply had to _find_ Brave, or rather Pride, who had yet to appear. "Aah! I've been dying for a fight!" the girl continued with a laugh. Starfire continued to search the dark room for the tainted counterpart, but she refused to show herself.

"Okay, well, where are you, then?" the Beast Boy asked in a challenging voice as he readied his shamshirs. Starfire and Zippy simply stayed quiet and kept watching their surroundings for any movement, both ready for an ambush.

"Behind you." this time, Pride's snide response came from directly behind them, and the three companions' eyes widened in shock. Starfire was the first to react, throwing a powerful backhand behind herself at Pride's head. The green clad mage twisted under the attack and threw a swift left hook at Starfire's head in return. The alien girl easily blocked the attack, Pride's fist colliding with a steel gauntlet instead of it's intended target. The alien princess then smirked, grabbed Pride's wrist, and aimed a front kick at the girl's torso, Her foot went right through the mage, though, as the sorceress dissipated into black fog, the confident smirk never leaving her face.

The next thing the trio knew, she was standing at the center, a hand on her hip as she continued to smirk at them. Her attire was similar to Happy's, though the cloak was green, the snake designs a brighter green. They almost seemed to glow in the low lighting of the room, and that made Starfire wonder what the low lighting was for. If it wasn't for stealth, then what?

"Wow, nice reaction time, Star." Beast Boy complimented the alien princess, a slightly dumbstruck expression on his face after the very fast paced skirmish that just occurred. Zippy held a similar amusing expression on his face.

"Yes, this should be interesting." Pride said with an evil laugh, and Starfire turned to face her as she began to walk forward. It looked like she started to flicker before numerous copies of herself slowly began emerging, all of them carrying that confident smirk. Seven. There were seven. Starfire had a bad feeling about this.

"Uh, this could become... tricky." the alien girl stated nervously standing back to back with Beast Boy as the seven Pride's slowly surrounded them. Just when it appeared as though things couldn't become more complicated, blades of dark energy materialized on the fists of all seven green-clad mages.

"Don't hold anything back." came a message from the real Raven, and Starfire nodded. She wouldn't be able to if they wanted to get out of this alive.

At the drop of a pin, all seven Prides charged forward, closing in on the three companions in the blink of an eye. Starfire, sword still sheathed, strafed to the side to avoid a lunge from one of them and threw a powerful fist into the mage's stomach, effectively knocking the wind out of her. The alien warrior then threw the mage into one of the approaching Prides, but three were then attacking, forcing Starfire to go into a defensive style to avoid losing any limbs to the dark blades they used. Practically being the same person, the Prides were rather difficult to combat. They worked as perfect unit, even trumping the Titans in their timing. This was _not_ going to be easy.

This fight proved to the alien princess the suspicions she had had when facing Happy's tainted form. Each emotion seemed to favor a certain type of combat and ability. They also did not appear limited to using Raven's dark energy, leading Starfire to wonder what exactly their teammate was actually capable of. The Titans had once seen she was capable of more sorceress-like capabilities, but she had never seemed to pry too much into the practice after she had been betrayed; that's all Beast Boy would say on the matter. All this brought that idea into question. Did she really delve no deeper into sorcery, or was it the opposite?

Happy appeared to specialize in the long range manipulation and alteration of physical structures, namely earth, but she hadn't used Raven's normal magic to alter the ground, nor had the controlled earth been illuminated by a yellow glow as Terra's had possessed. Brave, while she was using blades of Raven's dark energy and a close range fighting style definitely recognized as Raven's, she had managed to create copies of herself, and they were clones that could actually land blows. Starfire assumed creating actual physical copies was herder than simple apparitions or images.

Each emotional embodiment seemed to show specific capabilities, and, while the styles alone became somewhat predictable over time, combining them into one, Raven in this case, created a mixed style. This begged the question. How much of their friend's potential were they actually seeing on a daily basis?

As Starfire continued to combat the now 4 Prides attacking her, she knew she and Beast Boy would not be able to use a similar tactic they used last time. They would likely have to incapacitate the girl before being able to complete, or even start, the array, given there were seven enemies in this fight. But, now the clues previously given all made sense to Starfire. 'Seven in one.' There were seven copies of one being. 'One is all.' There was one real one. Finally, 'a kingdom without a king falls to ruin'. Starfire assumed that meant defeating the real Pride would cause the others to vanish.

'Will defeating the real one destroy the others?' she mentally asked, the distraction causing her to get cut, once on the left side where the armor did not extend to and once in the right shoulder due to similar reasons. She gritted her teeth and punched the attacker square in the face, sending the girl flying a few feet backwards.

'Yes, it will.' Raven replied, keeping the answer short so as to distract Starfire as little as possible. The girl nodded in response, but then the Prides outmaneuvered her. Two managed to swerve and hit the backs of her knees with identical sweeping kicks, forcing her knees to buckle, and a third then delivered a powerful knee thrust to Starfire's chin, sending her sprawling backwards. The alien girl rolled a few times before regaining her bearings and skidding to a stop on her hands and knees. Before she could get up, though, the fourth Pride was waiting for her and delivered an energy infused kick to Sarfire's gut, sending the girl flying fifteen feet into the air.

Starfire managed to regain her bearings quicker this time, turning herself in midair, and she threw a powerful punch downwards at the Pride that had jumped after her. The blow met Pride's knee, one she had aimed at Starfire's gut once more, and the force seemed to momentarily stun the girl, giving Starfire the time to deliver a double kick to the girl's face, sending her crashing back to the ground. All of this happened right before the apex of Starfire's flight, but she could no longer control herself in midair, not with her powers gone. So, when the three other Pride's appeared around her, the alien warrior could do little to defend against the triple onslaught. In a matter of seconds, she was sent flying back downwards, crashing forcefully into the ground that awaited her, forming a small crater on impact.

"Starfire!" Raven and Beast Boy shouted in unison, Beast Boy getting his arm slashed from the distraction. He cried out in pain and was forced to return his attention to his own fight, Zippy continuing to help both of his companions, using his tail to attack the Prides from the sky and sending the occasional fireball at them.

Starfire rose from the crater, nearly collapsing again when she stood on her now injured right leg, and her right shoulder felt as though it was dislocated. One of the Prides had cut her left temple just above her eye, and the blood that flowed from the wound forced her to keep the eye closed. This was bad. Glancing at the changeling's continued battle out of the corner of her eye showed the alien warrior that his tactic involved parrying or evasion, never assault. He didn't want to attack them because they looked like Raven. This fight definitely wasn't going well.

Looking back at the four Prides advancing from the front, Starfire noticed something. Their eyes were different somehow. Darker, as though they didn't reflect any light. The dim lighting made it extremely difficult to tell, but Starfire could also discern that their skin held a similar feature. Light didn't reflect off of them like it would a person! None of these were the real one! Starfire was sure of it!

That made up her mind for her next course of action. Setting her jaw and gritting her teeth, Starfire forced her right shoulder back into it's socket, swallowing the scream she wanted to let out at the pain. She then immediately sprinted, but not forward. She ran sideways, heading towards Beast Boy's fight. One thing had definitely become clear to Starfire throughout the rather short fight. Pride was toying with them like a cat before it kills a mouse. They had to end this!

The four fake Prides ran after Starfire, one actually catching up to her fairly quickly. Starfire, who had had enough of them by this point, rolled beneath the sweeping attack of the clone's blade, and, upon landing on her feet again, unsheathed her flamberge at an upward angle. She prayed her theory was correct as the blade cut right through the girl's torso. The green-clad mage looked shocked before thankfully dissipating into a cloud of black smoke; Starfire didn't know what would happen if they actually killed the real emotion.

The other Prides didn't seem to falter at the loss of one of their comrades, chasing after Starfire without losing pace.

"Beast Boy!" she hollered as she approached the changeling's skirmish. At the sound of her being so close and approaching, Beast Boy flipped over the horizontal sweep of one Pride's blade and jumped off of her shoulders. He landed next to Starfire, who stood back to back with him once more as the now six Prides surrounded them, Zippy circling overhead as he waited to assist.

"I can tell them apart." the alien princess whispered to the changeling.

"What?" he asked, confused. He apparently hadn't made the connection between the clues. After pinpointing the real Pride, the one to her left and Beast Boy's right, she briefly explained.

"There's one real one. The one to your right." she whispered back. Beast Boy didn't really know what she was talking about, but he decided to go with it. She seemed to know what she was talking about. With a brief nod, it was them who made the first assault this time, both of them running for the real Pride. The others quickly followed after them, Zippy diving to join the fray as well, while the real Pride eagerly accepted their challenge.

Beast Boy lagged behind a little, allowing Starfire to send a powerful downward strike at Pride, who jumped back to avoid the attack that crushed the tiles it made contact with. Beast Boy then jumped over a crouching Starfire keeping up the onslaught and keeping Pride preoccupied with blocking as he began attacking for the first time during the fight. While he did that, Starfire turned her attention to thinning the crowd, no longer concerned with holding back on the clones.

The alien warrior ducked under a horizontal sweep of a dark energy blade and then threw herself backwards, colliding heavily with her attacker and effectively paralyzing the girl momentarily from the force of the impact. She then spun on her heel and cut the girl through from the left hip to the right shoulder. The clone dissipated into black smoke, but the other four Prides were quickly attacking once more.

A kick to her face sent Starfire sprawling backwards, but she quickly turned the movement into a roll, straining her injured right shoulder in the process. Once back on her feet, she blocked a series of quick swipes, mostly having to use her free hand or the hilt of the flamberge to allow enough speed to block. But something was off. They were less coordinated now. Why? Unless... could it be the clones drained a substantial amount of energy from the real one? Quickly glancing at the fight between the real Pride and Beast Boy, Starfire noticed the mage's movements were just as fast as before, but she was mostly defending and used moves that took as little energy as possible. She was getting tired! She may have been toying with them at first, but it didn't seem like she had intended for the battle to take this long. Her name said why. Pride.

Countering the next attack of the fake Pride knocked the girl off balance, and Starfire took the opportunity to cut her at the shoulders with a horizontal arc, effectively dispelling a third clone. Adrenaline driving her actions, and keeping her standing, Starfire then punched the clone to her left and then immediately kicked the clone to her right, sending both tumbling to the ground. She then rolled under the blade attack of the third clone and sprinted for Beast Boy and Brave's fight. Zippy then sent a fireball at the clone she had avoided, distracting the girl from following. Starfire made a mental note to thank their new companion later.

Brave, having more combat experience in the art of using blades, had managed to turn the tide of her and the changeling's battle, and it was now Beast Boy who was on the defensive.

Since Zippy couldn't fight three on his own, one Pride clone jumped at Starfire as she neared the pair, intending to land a double heel kick in an attempt to get her attention away from the real one, but the alien princess turned, caught the clone's feet with her left hand and threw her backwards.

"Help Zippy with the clones." Starfire told Beast Boy simply as he and the real Pride separated momentarily, and he nodded; they both knew he didn't want to be the one to take her down. With that, they went in opposite directions again. Starfire closed in on Pride, who attacked without pause. They traded blows for blocks and dodges for counters, Starfire once again using her free hand and the hilt of her sword in the fast paced combat.

At one point, Pride lost her balance due to a counter of Starfire's, and the alien princess punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her and making her stumble backwards from the force of the blow. Brute strength had never been Raven's specialty. It was Starfire's. As the alien warrior stalked forward, intent on finishing the battle, she stabbed her sword into the ground, burying it half way.

"You would punch your own friend?" Pride asked with an evil smile as she got up and swung her energy blade at Starfire's head. It was now obvious that the use of her clones was tiring her out because her attacks were becoming noticeably slower. Starfire blocked the blow and punched the girl hard across the face.

"You are not my friend." she replied flatly as she delivered another punch to the face, knocking the mage back a step. "_You_ only aim to harm people." Another punch and another step. _"You_ are the reason my friend does not want to ask us for help." Another. "And _you_ are the one who will pay for all of this!" With that, she landed a forceful kick, once again to Pride's face, sending her flying a few feet backwards. She slid a few more feet before skidding to a stop. She didn't get back up. Exhaustion from the battle finally catching up with Starfire, she fell to one knee, clutching her right arm in pain.

"Star!" Beast Boy said concerned as he hurried forward to her, helping her sit on the ground.

"I-I am alright. I simply need to rest." she reassured him, breathing heavily as she rested her arms on her knees. He nodded hesitantly before his gaze moved to Pride's unmoving body. Since they were no longer being attacked, Starfire surmised her assumption had been correct and the others had been taken out when the real Pride had been.

"So, d-did you..." the changeling started to ask, but Starfire shook her head, knowing the question he couldn't finish.

"She has merely been rendered unconscious." Beast Boy sighed audibly at that as Zippy landed on his head once more; he too looked tired and had a few bleeding cuts on his small body.

"Hey, Zippy. Thanks for all the help." Beast Boy said, tired yet cheerful

"Agreed. That battle may have ended differently without your assistance." Starfire added, and the little dragon chirped at them in response, bringing a smile to Starfire's face. He was so cute!

Beast Boy's attention then turned to the platform at the center of the room.

"Alright, I'll get started on the circle thing." he said as he hurried over, taking out the chalk and stack of papers.

* * *

I have officially decided that Starfire is full of awesome. Just saying. Hope you guys liked the chapter, even if it was late.

*Actiony voiced announcer speaks* What will happen when our companions visit Rude's domain next? What unexpected twists will unfold as their journey continues? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z! Er- I mean Teen Titans!

See you all next chapter! Please review if time permits.


	11. Test of Skills

_I'm so sorry this is late again! I feel really bad about it. Hopefully, now that Summer's here, I'll be able to write more._

_To Felynx Tiger: I'm glad you liked it. The battle against Brave was a fun one to write, even if I did get terrible writer's block on the whole chapter. Hope you like this chapter too. :D_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing in Teen Titans, but Zippy' is mine! Mine I say! I suppose the demon and other added characters are too, but they're not important right now. Though, I have to say, creating reptilian species is kind of fun. Maybe I'll draw them at some point._

_Anyway, on to the story!_

* * *

_BB Centered POV:_

Beast Boy looked around the newly fixed temple. The stone around them was now more of a white stone, and, while the foliage still remained, more light came in through the skylights, giving the place a brighter feel to it. Zippy was once again perched on the changeling's head. He really liked his new friend, and they had bonded quickly. The two seemed very alike in attitude, as Zippy would respond to things in similar fashions to Beast Boy. The green teen hadn't put that much thought into it, though.

The changeling then turned his attention back to the two girls in front of him. Brave, now back to her old self, had spent the last few minutes healing the group and was now finishing with Starfire's shoulder. The green teen grinned, unable to stop himself from doing so. They had now freed two of Raven's emotions! Sure, they had six more to go, but they were making progress! Brave standing up straight brought Beast Boy from his thoughts and back to the present.

"Alright, guys, I'm joining you!" she announced enthusiastically, pointing to herself with a thumb and then resting both fists on her hips.

"Are you capable of doing so?" Starfire asked confused as she stood as well. "I was under the impression you must stay here to assist Raven with meditation." Beast Boy shared her confusion, but he really wouldn't mind Brave tagging along; she was his favorite because she totally kicked butt! Well, he probably wouldn't tell anyone this, but it was also kind of because she wore green. Brave opened her mouth, and was about to respond to Starfire, when she froze and looked up.

"Oh, huh-uh! I don't wanna' hear it!" she shouted, pointing angrily at the sky, and this time the two other teens knew she was talking to Raven. Though, Zippy looked confused. "You started all of this! If you hadn't been so... so...Ugh!" The green clad mage snarled as she made a motion like she was strangling something.

"Hey, don't be dissin' on the vocab!" she snapped angrily, pointing at the sky again. Beast Boy couldn't wipe the amused grin off of his face. He _really_ wanted to hear what they were talking about! But, it seemed as though Raven didn't want it heard again. Even so, he could almost hear the sarcastic comment that preceded Brave's last one, and it brought a cheery smile to his face. She wouldn't be the same Raven if she wasn't sarcastic and a little condescending all the time.

"You _bet_ I'm back-sassin' you!" the green-clad emotion shot back fervently, and Beast Boy burst out into laughter at that, Starfire giggling as well. Fixing a high tech car damaged during a high speed car chase: $15,000. Repairs to a pizza parlor demolished during a battle between good and evil: $50,000. Raven arguing with one of her emotions: priceless! And to hear Raven say 'back-sassin': even more priceless!

"No, there's nothing you can say that will change my mind." Brave replied to Raven stubbornly, folding her arms across her chest, and she paused, apparently listening to something the mage was saying.

"What do you mean. 'will I behave'?" she demanded angrily, but then Raven seemed to say something that scared even her—who knew that was even _possible_! "Yes, yes I'll behave!" the green clad emotion added quickly, smiling nervously and clasping her hands in front of her in an almost begging fashion. There was a short pause.

"Okay. I'm letting Brave join you under the pretense that these battles will be easier for you." Raven said, this time talking to everyone.

"Alright!" Beast Boy, and Brave cheered in unison, bringing another giggle from Starfire. Her friends' shared enthusiasm amused her, especially since Raven was almost never enthusiastic.

_Rorden Thalmus Centered POV:_

Why had they stopped? They were supposed to bring the mage once locating her proved successful, so why did the tracking signals tell Rorded the Dapha had stopped in a cave in the northern mountain range. They must have found something. Wasting no more time, the Monarch removed a tin, pipe whistle from the folds of his robe, and blew it once. The pitch was a high one, though not as high as a dog whistle, and, though not long, it was all that was needed.

In a few moments, the creature called to could be heard nearing, the low flapping of its wings echoing throughout the crowded clearing. Filled with cult members. The creature slowly descended into view, the people bellow it quickly clearing out of the way to avoid being squished, something the creature would have no qualms in doing. With a thunderous thud, the ten foot beast known as the Trydimir landed on the ground, its wings sending out gusts of wind that knocked several cult members off their feet—though some of them simply fell backwards due to alarm at seeing the beast.

It's wing span was easily three times its height—its crouched, ten-foot height that is. Three fingered hands with four inch claws on each finger rested at the folded point of the wing that was its elbow, and it's head was shaped similarly to a velociraptor's, it's eyes containing the normal slit of the reptilian family. It eyed the cult members curiously, as though it had never seen anything like them before. Intelligence showed behind its wondering gaze.

"Couphnan." Rorden said, and said member hurried forward, no fear showing at the sight of the Trydimir.

"What do you require, sir?" he asked with a respectful bow.

"It would appear complications may have arisen." the Monarch said without turning or looking at the man he was addressing. "Gather everyone at the tower. We will join you later. Oh, and," he continued as the man was about to go about his given task, and the man stopped, turning back to face Rorden. "Just in case, initiate the backup." With a nod, the man hurried off, and Rorden stepped towards the Trydimir.

It eyed him as he approached, seeming to size him up. It was still unsure as to why it had been called, and was by no means a tame beast. Removing another item from the folds of his robes, Rorden held it out, so the Trydimir could see it. It was a medallion of a two headed snake circling a disc, a glyph inscribed on it. It was one all people currently in this clearing would recognize immediately. It was the glyph of Naðra. The Trydimir made a sound that seemed like a mixture between purring and gurgling water before lowering itself further to the ground, allowing Rorden to sit at the base of its wings in the crook of its neck.

"To the northern mountains." he said, and the beast nodded before spreading its massive wings and leaping into the air.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

"So, this is Rude's domain, huh?" Beast Boy asked as the four companions walked along. Or rather, three of them walked along. Zippy was asleep on Beast Boy's head, and he looked downright adorable, in Starfire's opinion. The real Raven had stopped contacting them about a half an hour ago, but Brave said she was simply meditating once again and that it was nothing to worry about.

They had entered what looked like a wasteland, nothing but cloud cover visible. Starfire was very grateful their original clothes had been returned to them before Raven dropped communication because, even with the cloud cover, she felt this was what it would be like to be inside a greenhouse. How could the plants that resided and grew in them stand such temperatures and humidity?

"Yep. Kinda boring if you ask me." the aforementioned counterpart answered as she strolled along leisurely, arms folded behind her head. She seemed perfectly fine here, but she did live in that very humid jungle. It made sense she would be used to such humidity. "It's so plain and flat. Nothing even jumps out at you to make the travel more interesting."

"Well, there's mountains in the distance." Beast Boy said, pointing to the mountain range that rimmed the wasteland before them. "Besides, I bet we'll get plenty of fighting in Rude's temple." Brave shrugged nonchalantly at that.

"I guess." was her simple reply. Starfire, relatively quiet up until that point, then spoke.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked, looking at Brave.

"From when I was possessed?" Brave asked for clarification, and the alien girl nodded. "Well, not really. I remember fighting against Naðra's influence for a while. Even as the taint was spreading, I can recall a few things, but after she gained complete control, I've got nothing." Brave replied, her companions appearing slightly crestfallen at that.

"Why? What are you wanting to know?" she asked, not sure why they were so down.

"We were hoping to learn a little about what we're up against here." Beast Boy said, putting his hands in his pockets. "The only demon we've been up against was Trigon, and... well, that didn't exactly go well for most of us."

"Oh, well I can still help with that." the green-clad mage stated, immediately lifting their spirits.

"You know of the demon we are to face?" Starfire asked, greatly intrigued, and the mage nodded.

"Yeah. Research goes a long way. In order to learn to create the seals to keep a demon out, one has to learn about them first" Brave explained.

"So, you know the information?" Beast Boy asked, receiving another nod.

"Technically, I am Raven, just a specific part of the emotional basis that creates the whole of her personality, particularly surrounding the emotions of bravery." Beast Boy made a silent 'o' with his mouth, though he seemed no less confused by the explanation. "I know everything the real Raven knows and respond to certain things, say dangerous situations, in a way a brave person would. Timid is my opposite, responding meekly. In essence, I am Raven were she to only feel brave." she tried again, and the changeling actually seemed to understand that explanation, receiving a slight giggle from Starfire at his obvious glee upon not being confused anymore.

Starfire herself was a little confused at how Raven, and Brave, had learned to explain things to him, but that conversation would have to wait for another time.

"So, this demon, Naðra, is what I believe she is called. What can we expect from her?" Starfire asked, getting back to the topic at hand.

"Snakes." Brave replied simply. "Though, I bet you knew that already. She has the ability to summon and control anything with a reptilian background so long as it has existed in any one or more dimensions. She also has very advanced sorcerous abilities."

"Like you?" Starfire questioned, and Brave hesitated before continuing.

"Yes and no. While I do know some magic beyond my normal powers, I have not delved nearly as far into the magical realm as this demon. Her skills far surpass my own. At least, while she remains in her own realm, her abilities far surpass my own." At her companions' confused looks she elaborated. "It's unclear whether entering our world would limit her control over the energies necessary to perform sorcery. She could retain all of her skill or she could become limited to the point even I could face her on fairly even footing. At this point, it's the only reason I can see that would explain why these battles have been going so well."

"Well? These battle have been going well?" Beast Boy asked exasperatedly, receiving a nod from the green-clad mage.

"I believe so. Either she is limited, or she is holding back for some reason." Both her companions became extremely wary at that, and Brave felt an unusual feeling, an uncomfortable one, inside her at seeing them distressed because of her words. It made her feel the need to apologize for being so brash.

"I'm sorry if I was too honest, but-" she started, but Starfire cut her off.

"No, we need to know this so we are not alarmed later in time. It is likely our circumstances will not remain so if what you have said is true. We need to be prepared." she said, though she still looked a little uneasy, an emotion shared by the changeling.

**0-0-0-0-0**

A few hours later, the four companions had finally made it to the mountain range, and the temple was definitely an oddity. It was like nothing Starfire had ever seen, as were many things in Raven's mind. The group had traveled down a winding pathway that moved farther in and up the mountain range to be met with a temple that had been built into the face of what looked like a volcano. The entryway was large and square, intricate designs carved into the stone frame. The travelers currently stood on a large, stone-tiled path, and a dozen fifteen foot pillars bordered their entrance. The cloud cover filling the sky looked to be coming from the mountain itself, giving off a never ending stream of ash into the atmosphere.

Once they got close enough, the groupe's armor and weaponry was returned to them, and Brave was given some of her own. Her armor was hard leather similar to Beast Boy's, only hers was dark gray with black cloth underneath, and she didn't have gloves. She still wore a green cowl, one that remained up, and a green sash, along with green wrist bands, had been added to the attire. Steel plates rested on her forearms and shins, and her weapons were a pair of wrist blades on mechanisms that would allow them to extend and retract, the straps holding them down wrapped around the steel plates.

"Huh, maybe this place isn't so boring once you get past the unending, bland wasteland." Brave commented in slight awe. Had she ever been here prior to this?

"You haven't seen it before?" Beast Boy asked, mirroring Starfire's thoughts, and Brave shook her head.

"There's never been a need to." She replied, never taking her eyes from the huge entryway before them. "We may occasionally need to pass through another's domain, but we never go to the center, which, oddly enough, is never at the center of the area." Starfire and Beast Boy looked confused at that, so she elaborated. "It's the emotional center, but not the geographical center. That would be too obvious and easy to find if it was. This is probably the only reason we're able to do what we're doing right now, or else Naðra would likely have complete control. As it is, she spent more time searching for them than she would have." All three of her companions nodded, Zippy having woken once they neared the temple.

Once they were a couple dozen yards from the entrance, though, Starfire held her arm out, halting their advance. Beast Boy and Zippy looked at her quizzically, but Brave looked ahead. At the sound of echoed footsteps, heavily armored based on the clank made with each step, all eyes focused intently on the black opening before them. Grips tightened on sword hilts, teeth bared, and the 'shnk' of Brave's wrist blades activating sounded as a figure began to emerge from the dark opening.

It became quickly apparent that this entity was different than all others they had faced up until this point. For one, he almost looked human, save for the scales rimming the unhelmed face and brow and the slightly green complexion of the skin. He also had slightly cupped ears and no eyebrows.

He wore heavy plate mail that clearly belonged to a high ranking member of whatever army he belonged to. The design was intricate, and gold was laced into the ebony colored plates. The large spaulders, triple layered, ended in flared points, as did his gauntlets and boots. The thing that stood out the most, though, was the lizard man's weapon. The shaft alone was as tall as he, who stood around six feet. The ornate two foot blade mounted on the end was adorned with a black back and gold designs that resembled that of his armor. The way he carried himself, effortlessly with the weight of his armor, told the companions that he was a seasoned fighter and was definitely no weakling.

"Greetings, travelers." he welcomed as though opening his home to guests or greeting tourists at a hotel. "My name is Xérónick, and I shall be your opponent today."

_Rorden Thalmus centered POV:_

The cave was now in sight, as were the Dapha sitting just inside the mouth. As the Trydimir neared, they rose and backed up a few feet, allowing access to the large beast. The Tyridir landed on the wall of the cliff, one arm stretched inside, allowing Rorden easy access. Using the makeshift bridge, the Monarch quickly stood before the two Dapha.

"What is the issue?" he asked curtly, waiting for either to respond.

"Sshe hass gonne. Ttthe trrrail iss coold." It was the one on the left who spoke, in that drawn out, whispered way these creatures did.

"Tthe wwitch musst be ussing mmagiic to hhiide her sccennt." the other continued, and Rorden nodded. He should have suspected as much. As young as this girl was, she almost outclassed even himself in magical capabilities.

Stepping further into the dimly lit cave, Rorden found it was unnaturally flat, the flat surface spanning four feet in every direction. A circle. Something had been erased as well. He'd assumed it was done hastily and moments before the Dapha arrived because some had been missed. Rorden couldn't make much of the destroyed array, but he could tell the mage had a plan. Knowing he wouldn't get anywhere else here. The Monarch moved back to the mouth of the cave. He scanned the forest, barely differentiable from the sky save for the lack of stars. All was silent, not a single animal crying out or fleeing from any intruder, say the mage. It almost seemed as though all were conspiring against him in finding her.

"Where are you?" he asked the silence as though speaking to Raven. They were so close now, so close to fulfilling their end of the deal. A rare rage boiled inside the Monarch as his fists clenched at his sides. Everything before this point had gone smoothly, and he wouldn't allow this one foolish girl to deprive him of what had been promised to him!

_Raven Centered POV:_

A few miles away, no footfalls sounded through the silent forest as said mage moved through the trees. No woodland creatures stirred at her presence; one would think she wasn't even there at seeing her surroundings. Raven stepped over another fallen tree, placing a hand onto its fellow it had barely missed in its untimely demise. A flock of birds suddenly flying overhead, trying to get as far from something as possible, alerted her that something was now on the move.

The mage glanced over her shoulder, and she knew one thing. They had found the empty cave. A small smirk crossed her features. They had already underestimated her, expecting she would still be there when they arrived. While relatively limited, only offering a few hours advance, her preemptive abilities had warned her of their coming before the search had even begun. She had quickly destroyed the array, only enough to make it incoherent before getting on the move. She had been at it for several hours, masking her trail using stealth tactics she had learned from Robin to cover her physical presence and using magic to hide her scent.

Now almost nothing could find her unless they knew exactly where to look or had the assistance of some supernatural aid designed specifically for locating specific entities. The sorceress felt her smirk widen. While her friends were fighting to free her mind, she would buy them the necessary time to do so. With the added assistance of Brave, they should have an easier time of things. Brave knew everything she did, so she could give them advice while Raven lost their pursuers in this realm.

Let the chase begin.

_Starfire to BB centered POV:_

"What's the deal?" Beast Boy asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What do you mean?" Xérónick asked, genuinely confused.

"The only time you guys have talked to us, it's been to taunt us. Now we're supposed to assume you're announcing yourselves before a fight, giving up the element of surprise and putting us on more equal footing?" Beast Boy asked sceptically.

"Don't try to understand things you could never comprehend, boy." was the lizard man's cool response, and Beast Boy actually laughed. Everyone regarded him curiously at that.

"I may not know much." the changeling admitted nonchalantly.

"Beast Boy," Starfire said, beginning to disagree, but he shook his head, stopping her.

"It's alright. I know it's true. But, if it's one thing I've learned from Raven while she's been tutoring me, it's that, with things like this, the enemy never wants to give you more of a chance of winning unless they think it won't matter either way, which means you're way out of our league, or you're up to something else." Everyone simply looked at him for a moment, different emotions showing on everyone's faces.

Starfire was sure she looked a little surprised, though she never agreed with his first comment of him knowing very little. Xérónick was looking at him with a curious yet unreadable expression while Zippy simply looked on, having no background knowledge to go off of. Brave's expression, however, intrigued the alien girl. The mage looked a little surprised, though very little and probably not for the same reasons as Starfire. She also looked pleasantly surprised, mixed with a bit of pride. The alien princess also noticed she had twisted the string around her right wrist, the string that held a particular penny, in a nervous fashion. It was almost as though she didn't know how to deal with the mentioning of her teachings actually helping him, teachings Starfire intended to learn more about later. She was learning a great deal about her companions from this necessary venture.

"Curious..." Xérónick started, the same unreadable expression on his face as before. "If you manage to defeat me, I may tell you the answer you seek." he continued, lifting his glaive effortlessly and solidifying his stance. Beast Boy nodded in agreement to the proposition and unsheathed his shamshirs. Starfire followed suit, taking her flamberge in her hands. If defeating this man would get them closer to understanding the full of what was going on, then so be it. Even if the alien princess didn't like it, fight they would.

With that, the three biped companions separated, running at Xérónick from the front and both sides while Zippy took to the air. The little dragon let loose a fireball at their opponent, who deflected it with an armored backhand. Starfire and Brave then attacked in a flanking formation, Brave with a high spin kick and Starfire aiming a powerful swing of her sword at his calves. Xérónick braced his glaive against the back of his foot to stop Starfire's attack and blocked Brave's with his left forearm.

It was then Beast Boy who came from the front, slashing downward with both blades, aimed for the man's head. Suddenly, however, the changeling was not in the desert but a half decimated monastery, and his opponent was not the lizard man, it was Sadistic. He was about to cut her in half. The sudden image surprised him, though it was gone as fast as it had come. However, it created just enough pause in him for Xérónick to tilt to his right. Both blades hit the man's left spaulder, but neither dug very deeply into the triple-layered plate armor.

The warrior smirked before delivering a forceful kick to Beast Boy's face, sending the changeling sprawling backwards with a cry of pain. He then spun Brave in the opposite direction she had previously been rotating and pushed back on his glaive with a strength that surprised even Starfire, leaving her open to attack. The alien warrior's eyes widened in fear as he then shifted and raised his glaive to attack. Her balance was still lost for the split second it took for him to attack, so she couldn't block or evade with any efficiency. As the blade started to descend, though, a fireball hit the side of his face before Zippy rammed into his head, sending him stumbling sideways from the unexpected assault.

Starfire let loose a breath, extremely grateful to their little friend. That had been _far_ too close for comfort!

Beast Boy then ran past her, continuing the assault begun by the little dragon. He began slashing at his opponent, and, even if he was still no expert in blade combat, he was clearly gaining skill compared to when this venture had begun. Starfire and Brave quickly rejoined the fray, adding to the number of blows the man had to block or evade. The three teens fought in the uniform fashion the titans had mastered over the years.

A few more times, one of the companions would be sent flying from one of Xérónick's blows, though he didn't get out of any of this unscathed. As he would block one attack, or maybe two, another would land from the second or third attacker. He was outnumbered, which left him at quite the disadvantage. Even seasoned fighters had trouble when outnumbered four to one.

Over the next few moments, blows were traded between the combatants, and it became increasingly apparent to Starfire that, either this man was holding back, or there was indeed something more going on here, perhaps both. Whatever the reason, the alien girl knew they could use it. The man was already bleeding from a few cuts on his face, and his armor looked as though it had seen better days, scratched and cut in many places.

As Xérónick was distracted with countering Brave and Beast Boy, Starfire took the opportunity to ram into the man's side. He stumbled before Brave suddenly appeared behind him, already in motion, and hit him in the head with a double heel kick.. the lizard man fell and rolled a few times from the impact but didn't stay down long. He ended his roll on one knee and swung his glaive in a wide arc, forcing the three other melee combatants to jump back in order to avoid being cleaved in two.

Being hit like that seemed to flip some kind of super soldier switch because he went on the offensive, putting the other three on defensive while simultaneously deflecting fireballs from Zippy. With a powerful side sweep of his blade, he broke Starfire's defense and kicked her in the chest, sending her rolling away and then jabbed Beast Boy in the face with the butt end of his glaive, dazing him and putting a descent sized cut above his right eye. Xérónick then ducked under Brave's lunge, knocked the wind out of her with an elbow to her gut, shifted so he was beside her, and hit her back with the shaft of his glaive as if he were spiking a ball.

She hit the ground hard, crying out in pain as the stone tiles cracked beneath her. He raised his weapon for a finishing move and stabbed it downward in an attempt to impale her. He would have, too, if a few throwing knives hadn't been thrown at him, aimed at his head by Beast Boy. One dug unto his right shoulder, between his armor plates, and three others grazed his face as he moved to dodge them.

Zippy then rammed into him once more, but this time he clung to the man's head. The little dragon coiled his tail around his neck and squeezed tightly as he bit the man's cupped, human-esque ear. This time it was Xérónick to cry out in pain as blood seeped from the wound and down the right side of his head. As he tried to get the determined dragon off, shaking violently and prying at Zippy, Beast Boy knelt next to Brave. A quick glance at Starfire showed him she was still winded, but looked alright.

"Brave, are you alright?" he asked urgently, placing a hand on her back as she struggled to her hands and knees. She spit out a mouthful of blood, and more of the red liquid continued to drip onto the stone from her face. The left side of her face, the side that had hit the ground, was badly cut up. Really badly.

"I'm fine." she managed to say as she covered the wound with her hand, gritting her teeth in pain. Beast Boy nodded, though he knew she was lying, and ran past her to assist Zippy, a familiar feral rage spiking in him.

Just as Beast Boy arrived in front of them, Xérónick finally managed to throw Zippy off himself, the little dragon turning and flying towards Brave once he did so. The changeling attacked with a ferocity and strength that came with his rage, forcing the large warrior to go on the defensive once more. After a few powerful strikes. Beast Boy rammed into Xérónick's glaive shaft, breaking the defense and balance, and sliced downward with both of his blades. His two shamshirs cut right through the shaft, cutting the weapon in half. Before the lizard man could respond, Beast Boy jumped, rotating as he did so, and kicked the man square in the face with both heels. Xérónick landed on his back while the changeling, using the nimbleness he learned from changing into a cat, landed in a crouching position, ready to continue the fight.

After a moment, the lizard man slowly got to his feet, stumbling onto one knee once before standing completely. Beast Boy tensed, preparing to attack and finish the fight, but the man raised his hands in surrender, dropping the two halves of his weapon.

"That's enough." he said as he panted, trying to regain his breath. For some reason, the changeling didn't want to accept his surrender. He wanted to finish the fight here and now, cause this man great pain, but he restrained himself, something that took great effort. Maybe now they could learn something, though. He glanced at where Starfire had been to see she was gone but then noticed she was behind him, helping Brave stand. Zippy was sitting protectively on the mage's shoulder as she held her green sash to the left side of her face, trying to stop the bleeding. Beast Boy turned his attention back to Xérónick, glaring lividly at the lizard man.

"Alright, we won! Now you have to tell us what you're up to!" Beast Boy growled as he sheathed his swords. With a nod from Brave, Starfire walked forward to stand next to the changeling and joined him in staring the man down.

"You really don't understand anything, do you, boy. This should have made it obvious." Xérónick replied dryly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" The changeling demanded, lost on the lizard man's thought process. Suddenly, bars of dark energy surrounded Brave, and Zippy with her, Starfire and Beast Boy turning at the sound. A metal disc then landed on top of the bars, completing the cage and leaving about three inches of space above the mage's and Zippy's head.

"Hey!" the green-hooded girl, Starfire and Beast Boy shouted in unison while Zippy let out a surprised yelp. Starfire and Beast Boy were about to run back to her but froze in their tracks when an orange-clad mage landed on top of the cage. Beneath the cowl, glowing yellow irises peered out at them, and an evil smile revealed teeth, unnaturally sharp. Why did she look different than the others had?

"Rude! What are you doing? Let us out! _Rude_!" Brave roared as she pressed the right side of her face against the bars to looked up at the other emotional counterpart. She did not, _at all_, take kindly to being locked up like an animal! The tainted counterpart simply smiled evilly in response. Zippy, meanwhile, rammed into the bars a few times in an attempt to be free, hitting them with all his might. They didn't give, though, and they were just a little too close together for the little dragon to fit through. "Rude, when I get out of here, I'm gonna' tear you limb from limb!" Brave bellowed furiously.

"This was never about defeating you." Xérónick reiterated calmly, drawing everyone's attention. "It was a test of skill, and the test continues. You see, My Lady has grown intrigued with the power you two possess." He looked between Starfire and Beast Boy. "With the proper training, who knows what you would be capable of."

"We will not join you." Starfire stated simply, expression hard while Brave glared daggers at the man and Zippy growled, barring his sharp little dragon teeth. Beast Boy did a double take. That's what the dude was getting at?

"Yeah!" the changeling added angrily, offended by the very idea. "Especially after what you've done to Raven!" At this, the lizard man sighed in irritation.

"You mortals and your foolish bonds. Tell me, where have they ever gotten you?" he asked indignantly. "You insist friendship and trust are necessary, yet you turn on those you profess to share a bond with when it is most convenient."

"It s never as simple as that." Starfire cut in. "The important thing is that we try, try to assist those around us when they have lost the power, will, or foresight to do so alone. We will not abandon them to lost hope. The help is then returned when needed, forming a team, or, in the case of the Titans, a family, and this family has defeated odds that were far against us because of our so called 'pointless loyalty'." she declared, voice and demeanor strong and unwavering.

"Yeah. We all help each other out of tight spots and, if it's anything I've learned over the years, it's that teamwork is _always_ the way to go!" Beast Boy put in. Then, feeling clever, he asked, "Besides, what about you and this demon? Aren't you loyal to her?" The warrior snorted in response.

"Do not mistake loyalty and personal connection for duty and something the Fate's have designed." Xérónick then smirked. "Unless you are implying you are like a dog, and this mage is your master." He said as he motioned to Brave, and his smirk grew when Beast Boy growled in response.

"The circumstances may be different, but we too have a duty. One to protect our friend." Starfire intervened, expression umbrageous as she began to grow uncommonly furious.

"Yeah, and they're my friends, too! I won't just give up and abandon them!" Brave shouted, mirroring Raven's thoughts on the subject. Xérónick sighed.

"You do not understand. Even if you do somehow manage to weaken My Lady's hold on this mage's mind, it will all be in vain." he stated coolly. Confusion registered on Starfire's and Beast Boy's faces, so he continued cryptically, noting with a sneer that Brave did not appear confused. "Has she not told you? I have no doubt she knows. Even with the lowest level of preemptive abilities, she should have seen what is coming, if it hasn't already come."

"Shut up, you giant pimple!" Brave shouted furiously, though apprehension could be seen on her face.

"What?" Beast Boy asked worriedly, a sinking feeling hitting his stomach. He and Starfire glanced between Brave and the lizard man. "What're you talking about?" the changeling demanded, and an malefic grin grew on the lizard man's face.

"Outside of this mental realm, she is being hunted." he stated simply, and the two previously unknowing teens' eyes widened in shock. Didn't Raven say the draconians wouldn't go near her? If so, who was hunting her?

"By what? Tell me!" Beast Boy growled at Xérónick, feral temper flaring once again as his fear for Raven's safety grew to dangerous levels.

"That would ruin the surprise." The man replied smugly, and Beast Boy nearly launched himself at the warrior. Starfire stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to her, only to notice that she didn't look worried.

"Whatever this danger is, even in Raven's weakened state, I know she can handle it." The alien girl stated confidently. She then turned to Brave, who looked like she wanted to rip the lizard man before them a new one for sharing that piece of information. "Is that not correct, Brave?" at the question, the green-hooded empath turned to look at Starfire and Beast Boy. Her expression became deadly serious.

"Don't you doubt it for a second." she stated, almost as if she was daring anyone to say otherwise. Beast Boy calmed slightly at her tone of confidence. Starfire smirked at Brave's response before turning back to the Xérónick, who scoffed.

"Have it your way." With that, Rude—or rather Heartless—still standing on top of Brave and Zippy's cage, grinned wickedly, and the cage began sinking through a portal that roared to life in the ground just beneath it. Zippy, who had been resting on Brave's shoulder again, let out another yelp of shock and once again began trying to ram through the bars as Brave did the same using her wrist blades, both trying frantically to be free. The blades couldn't even slice through the metal of the roof of the cage, let alone the bars made of black energy.

"Brave! Zippy!" Beast Boy shouted as he threw a few throwing knives at the twisted, orange-clad emotion, one at her shoulder and the other at her side. They went right through her! Literally! The changeling's eyes widened in shock, and in the next instant she vanished like a mirage, leaving them with a parting evil smile. Somehow, Xérónick had vanished as well, but the changeling didn't care.

He ran to the cage and immediately started trying to break it open, his frantic mind forgetting he had swords. Instead, he started pounding on the bars with his fists, ramming into them, kicking them, anything. But, he had as much luck as Zippy and now Brave were having. He could feel the bars of black magic zap some of his energy with every hit, and, even when he was sure he had broken a fist doing so, Beast Boy continued to attack. However, it became quickly apparent that their attempts were useless. Stopping his assault from fatigue, Beast Boy leaned tiredly against the still lowering cage. He wouldn't be able to get her out. That mach he knew. He cursed himself for his weakness. A quick glance at the bars showed him they were none the weaker for all their attempts.

"Brave!" the changeling shouted desperately over the loud roar of the portal as the two inside stopped their assault as well, Brave's hands resting high on the bars as she panted from losing so much energy to the cage. She didn't seem to hear Beast Boy, though, as she hung her head and gritted her teeth in anger, her grip around the bars tightening and turning her knuckles white. It was no use... She couldn't break it either. The changeling gently placed his hands over hers, trying to calm her and to get her attention by lightly caressing them with his thumbs. She looked up at him with wide eyes, surprised by a form of contact she wasn't used to. The cage was now almost two thirds down and lowering faster, forcing Beast Boy to kneel in order to look at her.

"We're coming after you!" he shouted over the growing roar of the portal. "We'll get you out! I promise!" Brave's voice seemed to die on her as her mind still couldn't seem to process his previous action. All she could do was nod mutely, not taking her eyes from his. They were determined... for Zippy and for herself. For her? She didn't know how to even contemplate that idea, though she could feel her face heat up slightly at it. Suddenly, though, the portal flared to life, and a wave of energy shot out of the bars, throwing the changeling backwards.

"Beast Boy!" Brave and Starfire screamed in unison, and Brave instinctively outstretched a hand, creating a cushion of dark energy for him to land on. This shocked even her because, this close to the temple, her powers shouldn't be working. Starfire, previously too shocked to move, ran to the changeling. She helped him sit up, noting he wasn't injured from the landing, and they both looked back to the cage as the portal grew louder still, both using their arms to shield their eyes from the dust sudden gusts were kicking up. The two could only watch as the cage vanished through the portal, right before the portal roared out of existence.

Brave and Zippy were gone.

* * *

_I imagine the song "Anna ni Issho Datta no ni" starts playing, through to the end of the song's intro, right after Beast Boy tries to break open the cage, only to find it useless. Makes it goosepimply for me(that's my strange way of saying 'getting the goosebumps'). I'm fairly certain the name of the song translates loosely to "We were so Close Together." Don't hold me to that, but that's what a few sources said when I search for the engligh lyrics._

_Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I know I enjoyed writing it, even if it is late. Like I said before, hopefully these updates will happen faster now. I think we're nearing half way through the story at this point too._

_Please review. I love to hear your thoughts._


	12. Silencing Cruelty

To Soulfulbard:I actually haven't played Legend of Dragoon, but that's a weird coincidence. I actually did this for more character development. As for the bravery thing, you're not really reading too much into it, but you'll see what I did with it this chapter. It would be too easy if Brave just gave the secret away.

To FelynxTiger: Thanks, I think this temple is one of my favorites, though not because of the temple itself. I like the things that happen in it. The blushing actually deals with the slight plot twist I'm throwing in with Brave.

To makingabetterworld: Thanks, adventure games were always my favorite because they're a nice balance of a lot of genres, and _cool_! I don't think I've ever inspired anyone before! I hope your story goes well!

Just to let you all know, there is one swear word in this chapter. I don't usually do that because I myself don't swear, but it seemed to fit the circumstances. It's like the one time Riza Hawkeye from Full Metal Alchemist, another calm and collected individual, swears. It shows how deeply whatever made them swear affected them.

I hope the four or five extra pages in this chapter makes the few extra days of wait worth it. This chapter is almost 10,000 words! I didn't think it would be this long when I started writing it, and most was written in the last few days: I should really stop procrastinating.

Anyway, enough of my yapping. On to the story!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters. I wish I owned Caramelldansen, though.

* * *

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Nothing was said as Starfire bandaged a particularly deep gash on Beast Boy's upper right arm. He was seething, understandably. Both Brave and Zippy had been taken for no apparent reason. The only partial explanation given was this 'test of skills' the strange lizard man, Xérónick, had spoken of. The alien princess had met many beings on her adventures with and before the Titans, but none like that warrior. It was as if he thought he himself was not an individual, that his life was forfeit so long as it was ordained by this demon he served. He would probably take his own life if she asked.

Beast Boy standing brought Starfire's attention back to the present. He walked over to the glaive that had been cut in half, cut off the blade, and stuck both pole arm pieces in his belt. With yet no words, the changeling then sheathed his swords and turned, walking towards the entrance in the mountain's wall, Starfire hurrying after him. It just then occurred to the alien girl how lucky it was that they didn't have to eat or take care of any bodily necessities, save for a few hours of sleep.

"Beast Boy, we should rest." she tried reasoning with him. As it was, they had been awake and moving for over twenty four hours. At least, it felt like twenty four hours. It was hard to tell when the sun didn't set. The changeling just continued walking, almost as if he hadn't heard her.

"Beast Boy-" she tried again, but he interrupted her.

"I promised we'd get them out, and I intend to fulfill that promise." he replied, his voice harder than usual.

"I know, and we will." Starfire agreed, but she placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "But, we can not do that if we are unable to even stand. We need to rest for a few moments to catch our breath and gather our thoughts." Even though he wasn't facing her, Starfire could tell the changeling was thinking, and, after a moment of silence, he sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry." he apologized, but the alien girl shook her head.

"There is no need to apologize. Believe me, I want nothing more than to keep moving as well." she said as they both sat against the wall of the entrance. "For now, we should discuss a plan for defeating Heartless. Beast Boy nodded as he started thinking once more.

"Right. So, um... I guess she can make things go through her, right? I wasn't imagining things?" he asked, and Starfire shook her head.

"No, I saw it too." she agreed.

_Raven Centered POV:_

The tired mage continued her trek through the dark woods. Were she not who she was, being in such a setting probably would have scared her. As it was, all she was really craving at the moment was some tea. Perhaps something in a nice mint flavor. But, that wasn't important right now, so she shook her head to get the thoughts away. It had easily been another hour since she had begun her trek, and she really wanted to meditate soon to see how the others were progressing. So, she traveled for another ten or so minutes before she found a nice place to stop: a small cave not even tall enough to breach the canopy of leaves above.

Sitting down inside and lighting no fire so as to remain undetected, Raven controlled her breathing and began to quietly chant her usual mantra. Almost immediately, she found herself looking over her mindscape once more. Only, something was wrong. She could feel that Happy was still meditating to help her maintain control, but aside from a few troubling memories that had hit her right after she reconnected with her mindscape, Raven could not connect with Brave anymore. Why couldn't she connect with her like she would normally be able to do? What was wrong? She was still alive. Raven knew that just as she knew Starfire, Beast Boy, and Zippy were still alive. What was going on? Unless...

Unless the temples also severed their bond as well as rendering powers unusable. This was not good.

_BB Centered POV:_

*Caramelldansen plays*

"Aaaahhh!" Beast Boy screamed as he ran, arms in the air. He could hear it was still behind him; the unmistakable rumbling told him that. He turned left at the next intersection and stopped to catch his breath, thinking he would be safe. But, then the rumbling stopped. He slowly turned his head and saw the boulder had stopped at the end of the hallway.

"Uh oh." he said as it started to roll in his direction once again. It quickly gained speed, and the changeling was off again. Whenever he would turn, the boulder would follow him. Not only that, but it wasn't stopping much at the turns anymore! It probably looked a little like pac-man from above, was the strange thought that entered his mind as he ran, but he quickly shoved that thought away. If only the walls were a little shorter. Then the green teen could jump up them and get away from the boulder that way. There was plenty of room up there; the cave-like room he and Starfire had entered may as well have not even had a ceiling with how high up it was.

As the green teen ran past another intersection, he almost did a double take. He did, however, stop running. As the boulder got dangerously close, Starfire jumped out of the hallway he passed, flamberge raised in the air, and brought the blade down, cutting the boulder clean in half. She cheered at her successful sneak attack, and Beast Boy would have joined in were he not trying to catch his breath once again. At least the boulder was done. The changeling leaned against the walls, hands on his knees. He never wanted to run like that again. The sound of shifting rock made both teens freeze before looking back at the boulder.

As they watched, both halves of the boulder began to move and then clapped together by some unseen force. A light then appeared in the cut between the two halves, moving from top to bottom.

"Time to go." Starfire said quickly as she turned on her heel and grabbed Beast Boy's wrist, pulling him with her as she began to run. Beast Boy looked behind them at the now fixed boulder. Since when could boulders heal themselves anyway? Heck, since when did boulders have minds of their own? Right before the duo turned, another sight made him shriek, in a very manly manner of course. A second boulder had turned to join its healed comrade, only the second was on fire!

Through the corridors the two teens ran, followed by their boulder buddies who were apparently in a great need of hugs. Maybe they were lonely. Beast Boy doubted rocks made very good company for each other: not much to say. At every turn, the boulders were right behind the two teens, and, at one point, Starfire and Beast Boy went in separate directions, both thinking the other was still next to them. Naturally, since there were two boulders, they too split up, the one that had been cut in half going after Beast Boy.

One particular hallway summed up what was going on fairly well. It was rather lengthy and had about a dozen corridors snaking away from it. Beast Boy ran out of one and continued through another on the opposite side, followed closely by the scarred boulder. Starfire then ran out of another, ran a ways down the lengthy hallway and turned once again, the flaming boulder right behind her. Then Beast Boy ran across the hallway farther forward, once again followed. But, then the flaming boulder rolled out of another corridor in the back, looking lost. It looked around and then sweat dropped before rolling back the way it came. Starfire then snuck out of a corridor close to it and crept across the hallway to another. Once she vanished, Beast Boy ran out, chased by both boulders, and happened to run into the corridor Starfire had gone down. The scarred boulder was then thrown from the hallway, and the other quickly rolled after it, Starfire sprinting after them with her flamberge poised for attack as she let out a battle cry.

The events would probably be quite amusing to any not involved.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Beast Boy collapsed. He didn't even care that he landed on his face. He didn't want to move for a week. Maybe then he wouldn't be tired. He was sure Starfire was fine. Her and her alien lungs could probably run forever! Curses! Why did he have to be afflicted with mortal lungs?

"You two are making good progress." came Raven's voice suddenly, and the changeling immediately shot up, all fatigue and mental irritation forgotten.

"Hi, Raven!" he greeted cheerfully, happy to hear her voice again. Starfire giggled lightly at the reaction and sudden change in demeanor.

"Hello." the mage responded in her usual monotone.

"When did you get back?"

"A little while ago. You two didn't seem to need help at that moment, so I checked on Brave and Zippy." she replied, and the changeling perked up.

"Are they alright?" Starfire asked concerned before Beast Boy could get the same words out.

"Yes. I couldn't talk to them, though. Rude can't hear me, but it doesn't mean she can't hear them. I'll have to wait until Rude becomes bored and inattentive before contacting them."

"Do you know if Brave has a plan to beat Heartless?" Beast Boy asked as he leaned back against the wall.

"No. For some reason, I'm not synchronized with Brave like I normally would be." Raven replied, a little unease seeping through her voice.

"What is it you mean by 'synchronized'?" Starfire asked, mirroring Beast Boy's confusion.

"I can no longer understand what she's thinking. It's like our mental link has been severed by something." Raven explained, and the alien princess and green teen nodded. If they were the same person like Brave said, it kind of made sense that they would know each other's thoughts. If they didn't anymore, did Raven know what was actually happening to Brave and Zippy at the moment?

"So, you don't know what's going on in there?" Beast Boy asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the disappointment from his voice.

"I can see what's going on, like I can see you two. For now, they're both fine, but if something happens, Brave may react in a way that could make the situation worse, and I won't be able to tell. That could possibly put Zippy in danger as well." That worried Beast Boy. Although, at least they were alright for the time being. He could take a little solace from that.

"What could make the situation worse?" Starfire asked, eyebrows knit together in concern, but Raven had to think for a moment, trying to think of how best to explain the situation.

"These emotional embodiments of mine are currently just twisted and amplified versions of their original selves with no attachment to their original forms. I know Rude, and she has a knack for wanting to get under people's skin just for the fun of it. Heartless may do this simply to start a fight, and she has all of the personal ammunition she needs. If she succeeds, Brave won't stand a chance right now since she can't fight with supernatural means and Rude can." Beast Boy's worry was back. He knew Raven was right. While she was collected most of the time, there were certain things that could get to her, her past being one of them.

_Brave Centered POV:_

It was driving Brave crazy. What was wrong with her? She couldn't even _think_ about Beast Boy without her face getting all warm. Like it currently was. Was this _really_ what she should be focusing on when she was being held captive in a cage fifteen feet off the ground in the center of an enemy realm by another of Raven's counterparts, one that was crazy, possessed, and probably homicidal?

'Ugh, get a grip!' she scolded herself mentally, clapping her hand on the right side of her face, the uninjured side, a few times in an attempt to return it to it's original color. Maybe it was just the fact that she was in a volcano. Yeah, that had to be it; she didn't deal with those kinds of feelings.

"Brave, there's no need to worry." Raven stated suddenly, and, when Brave noticed Rude hadn't reacted, the green clad emotion knew she couldn't hear her. Her orange counterpart was currently walking around the large chamber lazily, bored from waiting for her opponents to arrive. Though, why she didn't just go find them, Brave had no idea. Then again, she hadn't gone after them either, but she couldn't remember much from before the fight at her center. Just a few sparse images.

"What do you mean?" Brave whispered back to the mage. At the sudden speaking, Zippy looked up at her from where he had been sleeping next to her. The green clad sorceress put a finger to her lips, and Zippy nodded in understanding, glancing at Rude out of the corner of his eye. Contrary to what she had first believed, Brave had discovered the little pseudodragon was actually quite intelligent, being able to understand the things people said and communicate intelligibly, even without words. He actually had the mentality of a person. A usually hyperactive person, but a person none the less.

"When I reached a safe location and started meditating again, a few of your memories became mine before our like was severed, so I know you have a right to be confused. But, nothing is actually wrong with you, per say." Raven half explained.

"Nothing's wrong? How so?" Brave asked quietly for more clarification, clearly more than a little uncomfortable with these new emotions she was, and shouldn't have been, feeling.

"You are a part of me." Raven stated at length, answering nothing for her disconcerted, usually audacious counterpart.

"Yeah, and?" Brave asked, growing slightly impatient with the round about explanation.

"And my mind is a mess, leaving things... jumbled and mixed up." Brave narrowed her eyes in thought, pondering her words until a slight revelation hit her.

"So, _I'm_ mixed up too?" she asked, and there was a short pause.

"Yes, in a sense. These emotions you're experiencing could be out of place." Raven answered, and Brave picked up on the subtle, or not so subtle, wording in the statement.

"You said 'out of place', not 'wrong' and 'could be', not 'are'." She narrowed her eyes again as though daring Raven to lie to her.

"...Yes, I suppose I did, though I'm still interpreting these emotions. I'm uncertain which part of these are real and which have been fabricated by recent events." Brave nodded in understanding as she continued to ponder this new information.

"If you understand all of this, then why don't I?" she asked, greatly confused as to why their link had been suddenly severed. Why had the link been severed? It didn't make any sense. If it hadn't things would apparently be much less confusing, since the actual Raven seemed to know what was going on. Brave simply had bravery, really. Putting puzzles together was not her strong suit; that was more Knowledge's area of expertise.

"I can't say with any certainty why the link has been severed, but it may have something to do with the fact that powers are useless in the temples. Or, perhaps it's because my center is under siege, and some magic was used to do this specifically. Luckily, while you and Happy are free, I still have control over my mind as a whole, just not nearly as much as I used to." was Raven's response. Brave nodded again before shifting uncomfortably.

"So, what do I do about this?" she asked finally, hugging herself slightly as though trying to bottle up these new emotions. There was another pause.

"Eeuh... Nothing." Raven responded lamely.

"What? How can there be nothing I can do?" Brave demanded in a hushed tone, glancing at Rude once more; she was still wondering aimlessly about. Not very observant, that one.

"Until all this is sorted out, things will stay jumbled. You'll just have to deal with them for now." Raven replied, though she did sound a little sorry for her emotional counterpart's confusion.

"But, what do I do when-" Brave started, about to ask what she should do when she faced Beast Boy again. He said they were coming, after all, but even that thought caused her face to heat up again. She groaned and placed a hand on the right side of her face. "This is _so_ Affection's territory." she muttered helplessly.

"Yes, it is... I suppose you should try to act normally when you see him."

"Easy for you to say." Brave grumbled. "So, are you saying I'll be back to normal once this is all sorted out?"

"...I...Uh, I'm not sure." Raven responded flatly. Brave was about to retort, rather loudly too, but caught her tongue and glanced cautiously at Rude once more. She knew she didn't stand a chance against the orange counterpart alone. Sometimes being crazy had its advantages. It made you unpredictable, and, though Brave would never admit it out loud, unpredictable opponents were the ones that gave her the most trouble. There was also the whole issue of 'no powers' on her part.

"How on _earth_ can you not know?" she demanded of Raven through gritted teeth.

"These things are more complicated than 'will you' or 'won't you' go back to normal. There are more factors to it. ...If a certain feeling or idea is strong enough, it will show itself in every aspect of a person, just in different ways."

"Wait, wait, wait," Brave waved her hands sporadically in front of her, trying to gather if she understood Raven correctly. "You're saying that, if these feelings for Beast Boy are strong enough, I could be _stuck_ like this?" she demanded desperately. There was a pause.

"...It's a possibility. If this is how it would manifest in you, then yes. You could remain this way." Raven finally stated, and Brave face-palmed. "What? I can't profess to know the future."

"Yes you can!" the green clad emotion scoffed in a 'duh' voice.

"Not about this, I can't." Raven shot back, and Brave held her tongue, remembering who she was talking to. She was really only arguing wit herself at this point. "You could remain like this, or this form of manifestation could be the result of Affection still being under Naðra's control. I can't be sure." Brave nodded as she took a few calming breaths. She then felt something touch her leg, and she looked down to see Zippy looking up at her with his front feet on her thigh. He looked worried and scared.

"Don't worry, buddy." Brave whispered with a smile as she scratched behind the dragon's ear, and he rubbed against her hand in an almost cat-like manner. She then turned her attention back to the sky. Or the dome-like roof, in this case. "Okay, now get out of here. Go help them. We'll be fine."

"Alright, but, before I go, a warning. You can't fall to any taunts Rude may throw at you."

"I know. Crazies aren't exactly my area of expertise. Too unpredictable." Brave grumbled.

"Okay, Starfire and Beast Boy should be getting closer now, so just sit tight. And take care of Zippy." Raven continued, and Brave nodded. "The same goes for you, Zippy. Make sure Brave keeps a level head." Zippy gave a goofy, one-fanged grin in response, something that caused Raven to pause once more, while Brave scoffed at her comment. However, Raven knew now wasn't the time to focus on what had just dawned on her, so she put the thought aside.

"Alright, get out of here, would ya'?" her brave counterpart retorted indignantly, not appreciating being made fun of, especially by herself. With that, Raven said nothing more, and Brave knew she was gone, assisting the others in getting through the temple. Zippy then crawled into Brave's lap and curled into a ball. The mage smiled lightly as she began stroking him, trying to calm him down.

"You're worried about them, aren't you?" the mage asked, and Zippy made a small noise to affirm her question. She nodded and then sighed. "...I am too."

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Starfire deflected another fireball and dove to the side, barely avoiding the reptilian creature that passed. Its appearance and battle tactics of it sort of reminded her of those of the pachycephalosaurus she had seen on the channel of Discovery. It had an armored forehead and charged at its targets at great speeds, intending to headbutt them. Its arms were small, and its legs were not, being powerful enough to propel it forward with great swiftness. The strangest thing about the creature, in Starfire's opinion, was that its skin resembled magma. Oh, and it was _on fire_! It wasn't made of fire like a fire elemental would be. It was _on_ fire! She could count the number of times the Titans had encountered that—one being the flaming boulder she and Beast Boy met earlier—on one hand.

The alien girl dove to avoid its charge once more, the heat it generated nearly suffocating as it barely missed, and rolled into a kneeling position. She then spun on her heel and threw her sword as though she were throwing a spear. The creature swerved to avoid the attack, the blade cutting its side quite deeply before embedding halfway into the wall of the room, and shot another fireball. It was then that Beast Boy flew into view, the fireball colliding with his gut, and he was sent flying backwards into Starfire.

"Oof!" Starfire exclaimed as the air was pushed out of her lungs, and the two hit the ground. Beast Boy rolled a little farther, ending in a rather uncomfortable looking position with most of his weight being put onto his neck.

"Are you alright?" Starfire asked as she hurried over to him, observing their two foes cautiously: the other being a virtual carbon copy of the first with a flaming horn on the forehead plate as an added feature. Luckily, it didn't appear as though it had used its head to attack the changeling as there were no deep wounds on him. It had likely used its tail.

"Yeah, I'm okay." the green teen replied as he dazedly got to his feet, eying their foes warily. He could remember taking a similar shape as them quite often, and it was quite effective if he did say so himself. This could potentially end poorly if the two super teens didn't switch tactics. A quick glance to Starfire, and they both nodded before darting forward.

Both lizards charged at them as well, but the teens didn't back down. Beast Boy jumped and bounded off the back of the one that had attacked him, the one without the horn, nearly yelping at the unexpected amount of heat that went into his feet. Starfire, meanwhile, had stopped her charge and solidified her stance with her arms at the ready. She waited.

"No! Don't!" Raven warned suddenly, but it was too late. As soon as the reptile's head plate made contact with her hands, Starfire tensed and held her ground, but something wasn't right. She screamed at the eruption of unspeakable pain that suddenly shot through her hands. Straining her muscles against the force of the impact and through the pain, she lifted the large creature and used its own momentum to throw it at the other creature that Beast Boy had avoided. The two collided, and the horned one impaled the other, turning it into a pile of ash, like everything else in Raven's mind, when it died.

Starfire fell to her knees, completely tensed as she hunched over and cried out in pain once again, tears escaping her eyes at the severity of it. The heat from the creature had destroyed her gloves, and her shaking hands were now severely burnt, black in color and slightly disfigured in shape, almost as though tissue beneath the skin had been nearly burnt away! She hadn't expected the heat to be that intense when she had planned that out. Somehow the temperature was infinitely greater on the armor of creature's head, and it gave off very little heat in comparison. She wouldn't be surprised if the temperature of it's surface was in the thousands!

"Star!" Beast Boy shouted at seeing her collapse, and he ran over to her, ignoring the pain in his feet and the remaining creature as it struggled to get up. "Star!" he yelled again as he quickly knelt in front of her, but she wouldn't respond. Could she even hear him? Meanwhile, the alien girl began to hyperventilate as tears continued to fall, fear taking over as she realized she actually _couldn't_ feel her hands! It was only the skin around the charred flesh that was in severe pain!

When he saw them, Beast Boy grew horrified. He had seen burns before, but none nearly this bad! Could she even move her hands anymore with that degree of damage? This really wasn't good!

Just then, the lizard charged again, and time seemed to slow. Beast Boy could move in time to avoid it, but Starfire couldn't! In her petrified state, it would also be impossible to move her in time. He would have to carry twice her dead weight, her and the plate armor, but doing so would make him too slow. Instinctively, he instead wrapped his arms around her hunched form and clenched his eyes shut as the creature thundered closer, helplessly hoping it would be enough to maybe save her. Maybe... One step. Two. Three. They were coming painstakingly slow as the changeling waited to be impaled.

"NO!" Raven suddenly yelled, outraged, before three large spikes erupted out of the ground in front of the charging reptile, and the creature was impaled by all three before it could reach the two teens. It cried out in pain before bursting into a cloud of ash. The ash blew over Beast Boy, and, when he realized he wasn't dead or maimed, he opened his eyes and straightened slightly, eyes widening. They weren't dead! But... How?

It was then the changeling saw the droplets of blue light raining down around him and Starfire, and he looked down to see they were gathering on the alien girl's severely shaking hands. They gathered until her hands were completely surrounded in light, and Starfire's breathing slowly began to return to normal, a look of complete shock on her face. When the light at last vanished, both teens stared, dumbfounded. Her hands were fine! There was no discoloration, no charred skin. Just her hands as they had been!

"Bu- I-" Beast Boy stammered. "How-" He didn't even know how to react, and, by the looks of things, Starfire didn't either. Another strangely silent party was Raven herself, and the changeling looked up. "I thought powers couldn't be used in the temples." he said, pleasantly surprised.

"That's because they _can't_ be used right now. I don't- That wasn't intentional. I'm not sure how it happened." Raven replied, sounding as dumbstruck as the other two teens currently were. Starfire was still staring at her hands, eyes wide. She moved her fingers a bit and then repeated the process of closing and opening her fists.

"I..." She was at a loss for words as she slowly stood, still awestruck as she looked at her healed hands. "Thank you, Raven." she said earnestly, though the mage seemed stunned silent, still not understanding what had actually happened; that should have been impossible! Starfire then looked around the room, looking as though she were deep in thought.

"What is it?" Beast Boy asked as he too stood, unnerved by all the silence.

"Brave did a similar thing before." she said, and the changeling's eyes widened slightly. How could he have forgotten that? Right before she and Zippy had been taken, Brave had used her magic to catch him when he had been thrown backwards. It shouldn't have been possible, but she had.

"Yeah, I remember that. But, how?" Beast Boy asked confused. "We still couldn't use our powers."

"It would be naive to believe these two incidents are unconnected." Starfire replied before looking up. "Is it possible that the demon's hold is weakened enough to allow us the usage of our powers, or at least yours, in times of great emotional stress?" she asked, and Raven was silent for a moment.

"...No. Her hold is only strengthening in the tainted parts of my mind as time goes on. ...Wait, unless..." there was another pause, and the two other teens waited anxiously as the mage's brain was going into overdrive. The wait was unbearably silent, and the two began to shift uncomfortably before Raven at last spoke again.

"I have an idea."

_Brave Centered POV:_

Brave was meditating, Zippy asleep next to her. She wasn't meditating in the same way Happy currently was. Away from her center, Brave couldn't help in that way. She was simply trying to calm herself and keep herself that way. She had to ignore her surroundings and calm down. She focused on her own rhythmic breathing, keeping her mind empty and relaxing all of her muscles, alleviating herself of all stress, tension, and unease. She had to remain focused. She had to have faith in her friends. She had to-_who was breathing so loud_?

Opening her eyes, she looked around in irritation.

"Aah!" she suddenly yelped in surprise, and she fell backwards, making Zippy jump to his feet in alarm. Rude was floating right outside the cage, that same creepy smile plastered on her face as before. Yeah. That wouldn't give a person nightmares. None at all. Rude snickered at Brave's reaction.

"Ha ha, that's hilarious." the green counterpart said sardonically as she resumed her sitting position.

"I thought so." Rude replied sniggering, that strange half-echo to her voice that made her sound like two different people, and Brave narrowed her eyes in annoyance. It was then, though, that she realized just how different her orange-clad counterpart looked. Her irises were yellow, and her teeth were abnormally sharp, as Brave had vaguely seen in front of the temple. But, now she could get a closer look at the possessed girl. She had to admit, the clothes were kind of cool. Dark orange with glowing orange symbols on them, symbols she recognized as demonic ones that aided in possession. Her hair was darkening, but it was the skin, however, that caught Brave's attention. The girl's skin was slightly darker with a tan hue to it and reptilian scales were visible at the collar, thighs, shoulders, and wrists. She was becoming reptilian. There was the faintest hint of her pupils turning into slits.

"I'm bored." Rude said as she leaned casually against the cage.

"You poor thing." Brave replied flatly, expression the epitome of uncaring, and Rude smirked in response.

"Let's fight!" she said with an evil grin.

"No." the green-clad girl answered monotonously, her expression unchanging.

"Oh, come on, just a little fight. To pass the time, what do you say?" Rude continued.

"No."

"You suck."

"Yes."

"Ooh! I believe you have just insulted yourself!"

"Yep." Brave replied, still looking as though she couldn't care less.

"You're no fun. You won't even give me a reaction." Rude pouted.

"Nope."

"Not even if I threatened to bring Trigon back from the underworld if you didn't?" Rude pushed. The green-clad mage simply blinked slowly in response, in a nonverbal 'no'. "Okay, now I'm bored again." the demon-possessed girl complained.

"And yet, I can't bring myself to care." Brave deadpanned. Zippy then sat back down next to her, giving Rude a similar expression she was getting from the green-clad mage. Rude observed him curiously for a moment, and Brave narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"What?" she asked, a little irritation slipping through to her voice, irritation Rude apparently caught because her evil smile returned.

"You honestly haven't noticed? For a genius, you're not that bright."

"What do you mean?" Brave asked, not liking how cocky she suddenly sounded.

"He's just like him with that same imbecilic grin! How can you not notice?" Rude exclaimed tauntingly. When Brave didn't respond, she elaborated. "That stupid green boy you choose to acquaint yourself with."

"Beast boy is not stupid!"Brave snapped as she immediately shot to her feet, pointing an accusatory finger at Rude, and Zippy perched himself on her shoulder, growling protectively. "And, I'll have you know that we're both nearly twenty. We're not children anymore!

"Ah, it would seem I have found your 'button'." the possessed mage retorted with a victorious smirk, and Brave's eyes widened slightly. She had to remain calm! There was a reason she had to wait for the others. Rude was just trying to pick a fight. Well, Brave wouldn't give her the satisfaction. She turned away from the girl, folded her arms, and closed her eyes, refusing to listen to any more.

"Obviously this thing is a summoned manifestation that your mind created of that _boy_ as a defense mechanism when your mind was attacked. Though, if you ask me, it's a pretty pathetic one." At that, Braves eyes shot open, and Zippy looked hurt.

"Stop it." Brave warned, her fists clenching.

"Is that honestly what you think of the boy? Small and useless? Unable to pull his own weight? Too stupid to even speak?" Rude continued, and rage began boiling inside Brave. But, wait, she didn't get angry: only irritated when her ego was attacked. Rage wasn't a part of her any more than affection was. Denying it, though, didn't erase the fact that she felt far beyond angry at the things Rude was saying.

"Shut up!" she warned her again, teeth clenched and brow furrowed in fury as Zippy whimpered meekly at the cruel insults. Though, since she technically was Raven, Brave had memories of saying similar degrading things to and about the changeling. It hurt and made her feel a little nauseous now to think about it, but it was true. She had been cruel.

"What? Haven't you said similar things in the past?" Rude voiced those very thoughts aloud, and Brave never thought such a simple thing as sound could make something feel so much worse. But it did. "He's nothing but the background aid and comic relief. He's not actually all that important. As soon as his limited usefulness reaches it's end, you'll just discard him. Why not just do it now and save yourself the trouble of throwing him out with the trash later?" Something in Brave snapped at that. She was _pissed_.

"You. _Bitch!_" she shrieked as she raised a fist, wrist blade activating with a 'shnk', and attacked, blade aimed through the bars at Rude's face. The possessed girl smirked in response, pleased that she had managed to draw out the desired response, and braced herself, preparing to dispel the bars to allow them to have a real fight.

Both of them froze, however—Brave in mid strike—when a throwing knife whizzed by Rude's head, cutting her cheek. Shocked, all three looked in the direction the knife had come from to see Beast Boy and Starfire standing at the entrance of the room! Rude's smirk grew before she flew down and then straight towards them with great speed, arm raised as fire gathered in her hand.

"No!" Brave shouted as she again tried to rip out the bars that kept her from helping, but it was useless. Strangely enough, she saw Starfire smirk too before the alien girl punched the base of the four foot tile in front of her with both fists. She then quickly lift it as Rude let loose an enormous blast of fire. The fire hit the tile dead on, now braced against Starfire's shoulder, and Beast Boy crouched right behind her. Both barely avoided injury as they were cocooned in the middle of the all-surrounding waves of flames. Neither Brave nor Zippy could see that, though. All they saw was the wall of fire that could have possibly ended their friends and the mountain of dirt it kicked up in the process.

Rude stopped her onslaught after a few moments, watching as the cloud of dirt slowly began to settle. She, Brave, and Zippy were all stunned, however, when Beast Boy suddenly flew out of the dirt cloud, aimed right for Brave and Zippy. Both he and Brave had to hold on to the bars once he landed as it began to swing back and forth while spinning at the same time. When Brave was sure she wasn't going to be sick from the motion, she opened her eyes, too shocked to say anything, and looked at the changeling who had landed right in front of her.

Rude turned, intending to go after him, but then Starfire was right behind her, flamberge raised over her head. The tainted emotion barely avoided the crushing attack, but Starfire didn't pause before continuing with a flurry of slashes, effectively occupying the girl. If she stayed in close enough, it would be harder for Rude to use her fire without injuring herself as well.

"See, I told ya' we'd come and get you out!" Beast Boy said to Brave cheerfully, a familiar, one fanged grin on his face, and Brave immediately felt her face heat up. She was just happy she still had a hood to hide it under. With that, the changeling quickly scaled the cage and took out one of his shamshirs.

"Brave, when I tell you to, dispel the bars!" Raven said urgently, and Brave was about to protest at the absurdity of that order when she realized there wasn't time. Beast Boy cut the chain holding the cage, and the three companions were sent into free fall. Putting her faith in the real Raven, Brave waited, Zippy still clinging to her shoulder. It was only when they were a few feet from the ground that Brave realized what she was talking about, and her eyes widened. She felt a sudden moment of clarity in which everything Raven understood about the situation became hers.

"Now!" the mage cried, and Brave complied, sending out a wave of energy that only dispelled the bars. The metal disks that had been the top and base of the cage were allowed to fall without interruption, and Brave then quickly vanished, reappearing, already in quick motion, behind one of the disks. She kicked it just as it hit the ground, and the disk was sent rolling in the direction of the fight between Starfire and Rude. Just as Rude managed to get enough distance to use her fire, and did, the disk suddenly shot between them.

Rude's blast of fire hit the disk and rebounded. The mage cried out in pain as she was hit with her own attack before flying backwards to avoid further injury. The disk was pushed towards Starfire by the blast of fire, but she dropped her sword and caught it. She then flipped it over herself, grabbed the edge, and spun the disk around before releasing it. It flew at the tainted mage with tremendous speed. She flew up to try and avoid the very large frisbee, but she wasn't fast enough. The disc collided forcefully with her shins, sending her tumbling through the air before she fell to the ground.

The four companions hurried over to stand a few yards from their collapsed enemy, three with their weapons raised and ready and Zippy ready to shoot a fireball at a moment's notice. Brave noticed Beast Boy was using the two halves of the glaive Xérónick had left behind instead of his shamshirs, but she said nothing about it. As Rude began to move, all four companions tensed, and she slowly and tremblingly got to her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

They should have known something was wrong when her fists clenched. Brave noticed too late. The instant Rude snapped her head in their direction, an evil grin on her face, all four companions were hit with a powerful, condensed, blast of both fire and Raven's magic. They were all sent flying backwards, and the next thing Brave felt was the cave wall of the dome when she crashed into it.

Whether she blacked out for a few seconds, a few minutes, or not at all, Brave didn't know. When she next opened her eyes, she was on the floor, her dazed mind somehow telling her she was lucky to have landed on the right side of her face. Falling from ten feet up was not what the other side needed at the moment.

Trying to focus through the haze of her mind, Brave looked around. The four companions had been separated, Starfire and Zippy a ways to her left and Beast Boy a ways to her right. Shifting to get her arm out from its painful position under herself, Brave looked forward, forcing her eyes to stay open. Rude was walking towards her. Though, stalking would probably be a better word for it. Glancing at the others, the green-clad mage noticed that they too were moving, but they seemed more out of it than she was.

She would have to fight Rude on her own for now.

Struggling to her feet, Brave had to use the wall of the cave for support to stop herself from losing her balance.

"That was a cheap shot." she said as she took a few weary steps forward. "Making us believe you were hurt." Rude smirked in response.

"All's fair in battle, my green twin." she replied, and Brave scowled. For some reason, she and Rude had never gotten along. Perhaps it was because Timid was easy for Rude to mock, and Brave was usually the one to defend their less spirited counterpart. A quick glance at her other three companions told her they were still out.

"A battle, huh? You got it." Brave said darkly before she activated both wrist blades. Rude's smirk grew as she held out her hands. Beast Boy's twin shamshirs then flew from their sheaths on his waist and into her waiting appendages, and she twirled them a few times to test their balance.

"He won't be using them." she snickered as she readied her battle stance, and Brave gritted her teeth as her fists clenched once more. Rude's next move actually gave her some pause, though, as the twin blades were engulfed in flames.

"Brave, you can't beat her on your own! Not like this!" Raven shouted in her mind, and Brave's eyes narrowed.

"Sorry, we're all out of time for that." was the green mage's simple reply before she charged forward. Rude met her in the middle, and Brave side-stepped to dodge her double downward strike. She then had to flip to avoid Rude's side sweep. As soon as she landed, Brave moved forward once more, making sure to keep herself within the safe range that kept Rude from using her fire.

She wasn't sure how long they traded blows for parrys or vice verse, but Brave knew she couldn't keep it up forever. She was already tired and sore from the orange mage's previous sneak attack. Soon, adrenaline was the only thing driving her actions, but it came at a price. She was no longer able to block every attack from the flaming shamshirs and had received a series of deep cuts for it. She wasn't sure whether it was good or bad that the fire on the blades kept partially cauterizing the wounds. It kept her from bleeding as much as she would have, but it also _hurt_! Luckily, she didn't actually have to hold onto her weapons as much as others did since they were strapped to her wrists. If they weren't, she probably would have dropped them by now.

That didn't help her with Rude's next move, though. As tired as she was, Brave didn't notice her foe's feint in time. The hilt attack that hit her gut next, knocked the wind out of her, and she couldn't react before the spinning heel kick hit the side of her face. She spun in the air a few times before hitting the ground forcefully, pulling her shoulder painfully when she landed on it, and she cried out in pain. Holding her injured shoulder and gritting her teeth, the green-clad mage rolled onto her back, panting heavily. She couldn't fight anymore. She could barely even move.

Rude stepped up to her, that same evil smirk on her face.

"I won't die. You know that." Brave growled defiantly as she regarded her twisted counterpart with an dark glare. Rude's smile didn't falter.

"That as it may be, your friends will be much easier to take care of once you are gone." she replied as she raised both blades, both tips aimed at Brave's head. The green-clad girl didn't turn her gaze. She wouldn't give Rude the satisfaction of showing fear. She simply held her glare as Rude attacked, both blades shooting downwards.

The sound of metal against metal alarmed both as the blades were knocked aside and dug themselves deeply into the ground. Both mage's expressions were those of complete shock as they noticed it was Starfire who had deflected the attack with her steel gauntlets, now kneeling in front of Brave. They hadn't notice her wake up, let alone stand!

"You and I are _not_ done yet." The alien girl smirked before she shifted her foot forward and punched Rude square in the face. The mage flew a few feet away, and Starfire quickly followed after her, Zippy right behind her. Beast Boy was at Brave's side next, and she regarded him with the same shocked expression she had given Starfire.

"We get knocked around all the time, right? This is nothing new." he said with one of his famous grins, and she nodded mutely before he assisted her to her feet. She then noticed that her bangs were in her face, and things seemed brighter. Her hood had fallen off! A blush immediately came to her face, so accustomed was she to having it up. The mage forced the thoughts away, though. They had bigger problems to worry about at the moment than her self-conscious nature.

"I need you, Starfire, and Zippy to buy some time for me." she said as she solidified her stance and forced herself to stand on her own. "After that fight, I know I can beat her. I just need to level the playing field first." Beast Boy nodded and was about to join the fight before he turned back to her.

"How much time?" he asked, but Brave wasn't sure. She had never had to do what she was about to try. There had never been any circumstances where it was necessary. If she did this correctly, she may have a minute tops to end the fight.

"...I don't know." she replied apologetically, but he didn't seem angry.

"Alright, we gotcha' covered." he said with another grin and a thumbs up before he turned and ran to join Starfire and Zippy. Brave blinked, a little surprised by the response, even though something very similar had happened in the past, the only other time she herself had actually met the changeling face-to-face.

As the changeling rejoined the fray wielding the two glaive shaft halves, Brave stood with her feet together, closed her eyes, and held her hands together in a meditative stance. As difficult as it was, she had to block out the sounds of battle on the outside. Had to ignore the fact that her friends were a part of that dangerous battle.

When she had reconnected with Raven at the beginning of the battle, she understood everything the actual mage did about the situation. That included how to get past Naðra's power-bind spell! It would only giver her about a minute, some of which couldn't be used for fighting, but that could be enough. She now knew her actual fighting skills trumped Rude's.

So, she focused inward, following the mental pathways shown to her only moments before. It was basically a maze. But, she did it, and, as soon as she felt magic flowing through herself once more, Brave immediately focused it. She swirled the energy inside her body, forcing it to circulate, and felt its rejuvenative powers immediately.

_BB Centered POV:_

How had Brave managed to face Heartless on her own? The three currently engaged in battle with her were having enough trouble as it was. They got in a few good hits, but the tainted emotion looked hardly winded for all their attempts. Glancing back at their green-clad ally, Beast Boy noticed she started glowing, and her hair, tied back in a low ponytail, began flowing as if there was a slight breeze. Her whole self soon had a blue glow to it, a glow he recognized as Raven's healing powers. Awesome! She'd figured out how to use her powers too! That must be why she wanted them to distract Heartless.

But, when the changeling turned his attention back to the fight, he realized that was going to much more difficult now. She had seen Brave as well, and the tainted girl did _not_ look happy about what her untainted counterpart was doing. She immediately broke away from the fray and flew straight for Brave.

"No!" Beast Boy and Starfire shouted, hurrying after her. It was Zippy who then hit the evil mage from the side, halting her advance and grabbing her attention. The two other companions quickly caught up, though, and started attacking once more. In a desperate move, she dropped the stolen shamshirs and clapped her hands together, and a sphere of fire erupted from her, throwing all three companions backwards, all three screaming in pain from the heat of the fire. They all skidded to a stop over fifteen feet from the mage, and, while she looked tired after that last attack, they wouldn't be able to get to her in time now.

Looking at Brave, though, Beast Boy saw her eyes snap open, the healing aura gone, and she hunched forward as though to sprint. She seemed to flicker, though, and two copies of herself emerged from the original before her foot left the ground. All three shot forwards, moving to flank a very alarmed Heartless. She flew backwards to avoid them, but then one clone appeared right behind her and delivered a double heel kick to the tainted mage's back. She was sent back towards the other two. One punched her hard in the gut, knocking the wind out of the girl, and the second Brave hit the girl in the face with a powerful spinning kick.

The quick battle that followed left Beast Boy, Starfire and Zippy gaping, mouths nearly on the floor. The changeling had never seen so many teleportations so quickly strung together. The orange-clad girl would fly away in an attempt to use her fire again, but a Brave would be right there with her, delivering another blow of some kind, quickly followed by the other two rejoining the fight; Heartless was probably wishing she hadn't wasted so much energy on that fire sphere of doom she just used. The three Brave's then repeated a move used on Starfire, only now the changeling was all too happy to see it utilized.

One Brave delivered a pinwheel kick to Heartless's jaw, sending her into the air a few feet, and a second then hit her from below with another double heel kick, sending her even higher. All three Brave's then started shooting by the girl, delivering powerful hits that kept her in the air longer while also doing great damage. As a final move, all three appeared above Heartless, two holding the arms of the third, and they threw the third one downwards. She rammed into the evil mage and smashed her into the ground.

After a moment, Brave stood up. Heartless didn't.

Starfire, Beast Boy, and Zippy immediately started cheering; they had gotten through another temple! When the two Brave clones in the air vanished, though, the changeling hurried forward, knowing what was coming. He reached the mage just in time to catch her as she fell backwards, already unconscious.

* * *

For some reason, the first time I reread this, Rude started speaking with a British accent in my head. Then, the second read through, she started talking in a voice that reminds me of someone in desperate need of a cough drop. Don't know why, but it was funny.

Anyway, in case anyone was confused, Raven reconnected with her mindscape as Brave used her magic at the end of last chapter. That's how she was able to get a few memories from her. I added Brave to the team to allow Raven to help fight against the demon even if she herself can't. It would make Raven seem kind of like a cheerleader who sometimes gave advice if I didn't. Also, Brave is awesome.

I felt really bad for Starfire when I wrote the burned hands scene. It'll also come in to play later.

Please review if you have time. I love knowing your thoughts. Oh, and sorry if the last fight was a little long. It wasn't originally when I planned it out.


	13. Heart's Burden

_***IMPORTANT NOTICE* (added on 07/14/11) **Due to continuity errors I feel may arise in the next few chapters, I will have to write them all at once. I am sorry to say this will push the update time back, but then the next three or so chapters will come out relatively close together. I didn't want to add a new chapter for this notice because I know how much it can suck to see a new chapter is up, only for it to be one of these. I hope most of you see it, though. I swear I am working on the chapters, and I will get them up as soon as I can._

_On a different note, I'm correcting the section spacing errors the document manager made. Apparently it gets rid of blank lines-what I had been using to separate certain sections-when the document is downloaded, and I didn't know that until I read this chapter over online for spelling errors. It won't happen again now that I know it does that, and I'm sorry if it made the chapters difficult to follow sometimes. So, when I use "_**0-0-0-0-****0**_", it indicates that the point of view has not change, but it is basically a new scene. Hope you're all doing well :)_

This chapter is on the shorter end of my 9 to 10 page lengths, but I hope it's still good. I'll start writing the next chapter this week, so I'm not writing it two to three days before the deadline, like this week—or last week in this case.

To FelynxTiger: What does 'ASDFGHJKL' mean? o.o I tried to make Rude and Brave the 'bickering sister' types, like my sister and I, though we don't get _that_ bad. Brave's blushing reaction was the partial plot twist. She's the 'shy crusher' type in this, mostly because it's so far out of the norm for her to get feelings like that. I felt really bad when writing the scene about Starfire's hands getting burned into uselessness, and, as I said at the end of last chapter, it will come back in later. I really liked writing the last fight, though. It's really actiony when played to the right music.

To pugluv24: Why thank you :D. It's always nice to hear stuff like that, and I'm really glad this story is liked. I wasn't sure it would be when I started.

To Soulfulbard: I assume you meant "Scooby Doo gang." I really liked writing that part too; I thought it was funny. I don't know why, but imagining boulders with personality chasing people is hilarious, and I just had to add the scene. I'll try to get the next update out sooner. I know I say that a lot, but if I don't slack off for a week and a half, delays like this wouldn't happen.

To G. Login: Zelda is one of my favorite games. A lot of these temples are based on the ones in that game. As far as Happy being really sorry, I could have added that. It's just that Happy is supposed to be happy all the time, so it would have been odd. Brave only started feeling other emotions a while after she had been freed, and Happy didn't have as much time to do that. Glad you love the story, though. That's what I'm aiming for.

On to chapter 13!

* * *

_BB Centered POV:_

"Rude." Raven reprimanded as the girl, arms crossed stubbornly, stood facing away from the four "intruders", as she had called them, in her home. She had already healed the groups major injuries, including the still unconscious Brave's cheek, however grudgingly in that case. She then called them 'meddlers', igniting the current predicament. "Rude!" Raven snapped, and the orange-clad counterpart grit her teeth. Indignantly, she turned to face the companions.

"I'm. Sorry." she ground out through clenched teeth. "I'm _very_ grateful for your help." she continued, though her tone told Beast Boy differently. Oh well. He was still happy she was back to normal, even if she did seem in a particularly bad mood.

"Well, I'm Beast Boy." the changeling introduced himself as he held out his hand.

"I know who you are." Rude replied, eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Oh, right." he replied with a sheepish grin as he scratched the back of his head, though even he noticed she didn't call him some sort of derogatory name. Zippy was "Fish Bite", Starfire was "Glowstick", and Brave was "G.I. Jane". The changeling was kind of surprised she didn't call him "Elf" or "Vegiholic" or something else in reference to his appearance or diet.

"Alright, Rude, you're staying here to help Happy in meditation." Raven interjected before Rude could respond smartly, and the orange-clad mage then turned her annoyed gaze upward.

"What? Why does 'Jane' get to go out and kick butt, but I have to stay here?" she demanded with a huff.

"Because I can trust her more to get along with the others." the mage's voice replied flatly, and Rude's shoulders slumped in irritation. Knowing she wouldn't get anywhere by arguing, she then stalked over to the center of the room and sat down forcefully in the center of the recently drawn array.

"Fine, I'll stay here, but I don't have to like it." she fumed.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Starfire and Beast Boy walked down the path of the newly changed realm of Rude's. The changeling thought that this was what a Jurassic desert would have looked like, though it and modern deserts were probably very similar. To anyone who didn't grow up in a desert, there would probably be few differences. The four companions were surrounded by rock, not sand. Though, sand was present, just not as much. The plants were what tipped the changeling off. The few shrubs he could see had definitely not been in the deserts of Africa. This was probably a desert of another planet, though, given that no one actually knew what the Jurassic deserts looked like. Plus, some of the plants were bright purple or neon blue. Could've been that that gave it away.

Brave shifting in his arms made Beast Boy look down from their surroundings and to the green clad mage he was carrying. She was shifting in her sleep. Raven had explained that teleporting as many times as she had, along with creating two copies of herself who teleported just as much, had drained a lot of her energy. Before dropping contact with them once more, which the companions now knew was to avoid her would-be captors, she had explained that they should walk for now because Brave wouldn't be asleep for too much longer. Then they could all fly.

Said mage shifted once again in the changeling's arms, burying her face into his shoulder and moving one arm to partially wrap around his midsection, her fingers lightly clutching the material of his shirt. Beast Boy felt his face grow warm almost immediately. How someone could be adorable and beautiful at the same time, he would never know, but she was pulling it off flawlessly. He would have felt strange for thinking that were Brave and Raven not the same person. Heck, it still was a little strange, but the face was unmistakable; her hood was down, and her hair was still tied back, giving him a nice view of said face. She was Raven. When she snuggled even closer to him, the green teen's face grew warmer still, and Starfire giggled, reminding him that he and the mage were not the only ones present.

He snapped his head to the side to look at the alien princess to see she was smiling at him, and Zippy, perched on her head, was grinning. The changeling grinned nervously in response, the blush not fading from his face.

"I take it your arms are _not_ tired?" Starfire asked, though the knowing smile told him she knew the answer. Beast Boy's arms were getting tired from carrying Brave, but he was _not_ giving her up!

"Nope." he replied with a happy smile, and Starfire giggled again. She was the only person he had told about how deep his feelings for the mage ran, so he knew that she knew he was practically over the moon at the moment.

_Raven Centered POV:_

Raven's eyes snapped open. How had someone gotten this close without her knowing about it sooner? The mage immediately got to her feet and stood with her back to a nearby tree, hidden from whoever was coming. She closed her eyes and focused. There were two unknown entities coming towards her, and they were getting close.

Raven moved to run, preferring to avoid a fight, but one of the entities then passed around her at an insanely fast speed. Before she had even taken a few steps, it was a ways in front of her, and she froze, taking out a knife hidden in her boot. She had to save as much energy as she could. She glanced around the area, looking for any signs of movement until said movement finally came from in front of her. The empath tensed, ready to attack her unknown adversary.

"Raven, don't attack." came a calm voice from behind a tree, and she paused, vaguely recognizing it. When she didn't respond, a figure stepped out, hands raised to show there were no hostile intentions, and light revealed the features of a young man with short, dark umber colored, hair. There was a scar above his right eye, his eyes being deep cerulean in color, and he wore relatively plain clothing: a blue long sleeved shirt and dark jeans. He was maybe in his mid-twenties and was unarmed.

Rustling in the leaves behind her quickly drew Raven's attention, and she turned to see a girl, about the same age as the boy, breathing heavily as she rested her hands on her knees. Her light brown hair was tied back loosely, and she wore a white, sleeveless shirt and pale blue jeans. The sheath on her back contained two, three foot staffs.

The mystery as to how she had been found had now been solved. As a pair, Raven recognized the two. They were both able to harness energy and use it in different ways. The boy, Arin, specialized in speed and agility and was named 'Raptor' because of such traits and for his affinity for integrating kicks into his combat style. The girl, Kate, had power and burst attacks and was named 'KP', though Raven didn't know why. The girl also had amazing sensory abilities, making her ideal for tracking missions. The Justice League had invited them as initiates for that very purpose, and one wasn't usually seen without the other. They usually wore attire that resembled that of ninjas into battle, definitely uncommon in heroes.

"We finally caught up to you." the girl said with a smile, placing her hands on her hips as she stood up straight, revealing green eyes.

"Why is the League looking for me?" Raven asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion as she looked between the two. If they were thinking she would let the league take do anything with her because she was 'too dangerous' at the moment, she would give them one heck of a fight.

"They aren't." Arin replied simply in his usual 'short response' way, placing his hands in his pockets. Raven blinked.

"Robin called us. Said he was worried about you guys, so we came to help." Kate continued for her companion, though Raven's guard did not falter at this. Instead, she scanned their emotions.

From Arin, the 'actions speak louder than words' type, she got calm. While that's what his face said most of the time, she also sensed he clearly did not want to leave people who were in trouble to be forced to solve their problems alone. From Kate, the more upbeat and outgoing type, Raven sensed a sincere desire to help. Neither were lying or had any ulterior motives that she could sense. The empath lowered the knife in her hand.

"It's easier if I stay hidden for now." she informed them, telling them that she would be remaining in this forest until further notice, and they nodded.

"Where are Starfire and Beast Boy? Robin said they should have found you by now, but I can't sense them anywhere in this forest." Kate said as she looked around, probably checking for them again.

"Unreachable at the moment." was the empath's reply, not sure how else to respond to a pair of heroes she had met briefly once before.

_Brave Centered POV:_

Brave couldn't remember ever being so comfortable. Whatever she was sitting next to was giving off a nice aura of warmth. She felt comfortably tepid; she may even say she was cozy. Subconsciously, she shifted closer to whatever was giving off that wonderful warmth and dozed back into the land of sleep.

She awoke fully some time later. She didn't have all of her energy back, but she had most of it. Eyes slowly opening just a little, the mage grew confused. She was moving. How was she moving? Not only that, but the source of the comfortable warmth was moving too. She then realized that her fingers were clutching something, some kind of white material. Then, the green-clad mage finally noticed the green hand supporting her knees. Her eyes shot open all the way and she looked up. She was being carried. By Beast Boy. He was the source of the comfortable warmth. Oh, dear Azar...

"Oh, hey! You're up!" the changeling said with a cheery grin. Azar, he was looking at her...

"Meep!" Brave squeaked in a very Starfire-esque manner as she floated quickly out of his arms. Upon landing on the ground, she stumbled a little and then stood as straight as a board, a deep blush filling her cheeks.

"How are you feeling?" Starfire then asked, alerting Brave to her and Zippy's presence, and she turned to look at them. She had known they were there, of course she had. She just... momentarily forgot. She nodded in response to the alien girl's question, not quite trusting her voice at the moment as the blush was starting to dissipate. She then realized Starfire and Zippy had seen her reaction to being carried by the changeling and the blush started creeping back in. Her hand moved to lift her hood up, but something inside her stopped her. Why did she feel as though she didn't _want_ to put her hood up? She hesitated before closing her hand and dropping it back to her side.

"Hey, you didn't hide when you got uncomfortable! High five for progress!" Beast Boy cheered happily as he held up a hand. Brave simply looked at it, standing awkwardly with one hand clasping her other elbow.

"You okay?" the changeling asked confused, and Brave cleared her throat, her cheeks still a little warm.

"Um, yes. Yes I am." she replied honestly as she turned and took off flying down the path. Still slightly confused, the changeling shifted into a hawk, and the remaining three took off after the green-clad mage.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Getting closer to the next realm, Starfire noticed Brave's demeanor growing grim. That was unusual, especially considering she was the embodiment of bravery. Something was clearly bothering her, though Starfire had no idea what. Perhaps she knew the kind of adversary they would be facing next and was not looking forward to the conflict?

"We should stop before we reach Timid's realm." the mage suddenly hollered over the sound of the rushing winds.

"Why is that?" the confused alien princess asked. They had traveled much farther before than they had after leaving Rude's temple. They could likely travel quite a distance in the next realm before needing to rest. Though, this time the group would actually need to sleep, given how long it had been since they last had without being unconscious.

"I would prefer getting through the next area in one go, and we'll need to stop in the middle if we don't stop before we enter." The hard expression on the mage's face while she said this made it clear she was saying no more on the topic, so Starfire didn't press the matter. Thus, in less than an hour, the group stopped at the gate that would lead them to Timid's realm. It still fascinated the alien girl how the portals worked. On one side was a setting that extended as far as the eye could see in every direction, but, on the other side was a completely different setting, also visible in all directions. Fascinating.

"I'll take watch." Brave announced, and when both other teens were about to protest, she held up her hand, cutting them off. "I've already slept. I'll keep watch." she said, steadfast in her decision. Starfire knew she wouldn't be swayed differently. She also knew what the mage said was true; the trio of helpers needed sleep. Though grudgingly agreeing at first, Beast Boy and Zippy were practically unconscious once their heads hit the ground, the changeling snoring loudly in his sleep. Brave then sat next to the pair lotus style, a small frown on her face as she looked across the desert.

"Are you alright?" Starfire asked, and Brave nodded in response, though her expression didn't change.

"I'll just feel better once we get past Timid's realm." she said, rubbing the penny tied to her right wrist, probably subconsciously. "It doesn't scare me, but... it's got some bad reminders in it." Her voice was unusually quiet.

"Do you wish to talk about it?" the alien princess asked concerned, already knowing it was a futile, yet a necessary, attempt. As expected, the empath shook her head.

"No. You'll see soon enough." she responded, still rubbing the penny. Worries not appeased, Starfire lay down on the opposite side of the dozing duo. When she was about to fall asleep, Brave's quiet voice sounded.

"Did you know Zippy is Beast Boy?" she asked. Starfire looked at the mage to see she was looking at said pair between them. Her expression was unreadable, but the alien princess knew that faint tone in the empath's voice. She was upset. At herself or someone else, Starfire wasn't sure which, but something about the previous statement distressed her. But, then the alien girl seemed to actually hear the previous comment, and she did a mental double-take.

"W-what?" she asked intelligently, brow scrunched in confusion.

"My subconscious mind probably created him when it was attacked. I think it was a defense mechanism." Brave reiterated. While the idea was still a little odd, Starfire supposed it made sense. So, sensing the danger, Raven's subconscious created the little dragon in Beast Boy's image as a fail safe. The alien princess didn't find anything wrong with that, though. It was actually kind of sweet.

"But..." Brave continued, but she then bowed her head, hiding her face in shadow as she drew her hood up.

"But?" Starfire asked gently, wanting to aid her friend who was clearly unsettled by something.

"The things she said!" the empath blurted out as her fists, then placed on her legs, clenched, startling Starfire with the outburst. "That he's small and can't even talk and-"

"You can not listen to what Heartless said." the alien princess interrupted once she pieced together what was going on. The tainted mage had said things that made Brave, and Raven as well, question the motives and ideas behind Zippy's creation. She was questioning whether he had been created under derogatory assumptions and ideas about the changeling.

"She said those things to anger you enough to initiate a fight; something I believe she had succeeded in shortly before Beast Boy and I arrived." At the affirming nod from Brave, Starfire continued. "She knew what would enrage you, but that does not draw the conclusion that the ideas she implied are believed by you or are accurate in any form. Zippy may not be large nor all-powerful, but he has been a great help. He has saved us many times during battle. He is also a good companion and cares greatly for our well-being. The same can be said for Beast Boy." Brave seemed slightly appeased as she took in this information, a thoughtful expression enveloping her features. Zippy then made a sound in his sleep that was somewhere between a chirp and a purr, a sound that resembled his speak. He had a cheery smile on his face while he dreamed, still curled up on the changeling's chest.

"And I personally find the way he speaks, even if not in words, to be adorable." Starfire added with a smile, and the empath gave a small one in return. She then nodded.

"Thank you. I'm sorry for keeping you up." she apologized.

"There is no need. We are here to help, and not just in the fighting. We are your friends." Starfire stated. The mage blinked but then nodded, and with that, Starfire laid down once more and was asleep within moments.

**0-0-0-0-0**

The next realm was, easy enough to say, not what Starfire had expected. Dark clouds filled the sky, lightning flashing as a rainless storm raged, and fog blanketed everything in sight. Those things alone told the alien princess this was not a very happy place to be. Even the dirt of the wasteland setting looked a little gray. However, it was the headstones that caught the attention of everyone in the small group. It was the gravestones that told them what the place was probably like. On either side of the path, a forest of gravestones extended as far as the eye could see, an innumerable amount of them. The thing was, each one had a name. A different name. No two were alike, and a lot of them weren't human, given the languages used. Starfire even recognized the language of her own home world on a few of them.

"...Where are we?" the alien girl asked quietly as her eyes scanned over all the gravestones.

"Timid's realm." Brave replied simply as she knelt in front of one of the gravestones. Her fingers traced the worn name engraved in the stone as her expression grew thoughtful.

"Do you know that person?" Beast Boy asked as he and Starfire stood behind her, Zippy on the changeling's shoulder, but the mage shook her head softly, confusing her companions.

"These are... all of the people my father has killed." she confessed as she looked to the many gravestones in the distance, and both teens expressions grew shocked. These were... what? Zippy gave a small whimper and hopped off of Beast Boys shoulder, landing on Brave's. He nudged her cheek, and a small smile came to her face as she stroked his neck. "It's okay, bud." she consoled as she stood.

"Do you know all of their names?" Starfire asked as she looked around them once more, but it wasn't Brave who responded.

"No, I don't." came the real Raven's voice, alerting them that she was back. "And I never will." she continued as Brave took off flying, Zippy still on her shoulder. Starfire and Beast Boy quickly followed, the changeling turning into a hawk once again to do so. "I sometimes come here to remind myself why I do what I do. ...I know I can never even the score, but... I can do my best." her voice was grim as she said this, and the two teens farther back exchanged uneasy glances. Nervous glances had been cast to the sky, still spouting lightning all around them, but it soon became apparent that the group would not be struck.

They flew for a while in silence because Beast Boy couldn't speak as a bird, and Starfire didn't know what to say. Did Raven really blame herself for everything her father had done? The idea was inconceivable! The mage hadn't even been alive when Trigon had done most of those terrible things, so how could she blame herself?

"There's something you two should know before we reach the center." Brave said as she lagged back, joining her two biped companions. "This fight may be one of the hardest." she said as she folded her arms with a thoughtful expression, still flying as she did so.

"Why is that?" Starfire asked, Beast Boy still unable to speak in bird form.

"Her abilities." Brave replied, but it was Raven who continued from there.

"Timid specializes in illusions and empathy, though she also holds what you could call 'reverse empathy'. I suppose you could say it's like inception, implanting an idea in someone's mind. Only, this time, it will be with emotions. She will likely make you feel whatever she is feeling, which... well, the name I've written down on the paper explains the gist of it." Raven explained. Starfire had read the names many times by now, so she had them memorized. Timid's tainted form was Fear.

"How bad?" she asked, a small frown playing across her face.

"Bad." Brave replied grimly. "She's probably scared out of her mind right now." Beast Boy then flew between them and let out a whistle type cry. The two girls and Zippy looked forward to see they were coming to some structures. At closer inspection, Starfire realized it was a cluster of mausoleums. That must be the center.

_BB Centered POV:_

The group landed on a path between two mausoleums. If the fog clouding their vision wasn't bad enough, the structures were almost the same color as the mist, making it very difficult to tell where the structure walls ended. Brave took the lead, cautiously walking forward to the larger structure barely visible before them.

"Hey, we're not gonna' run into any pirate ghosts, are we?" the changeling asked as he drew his swords; something about this place was really giving him the creeps.

"No." Brave replied over her shoulder, though she was still glancing around. "But I can't guarantee we won't run into some other kind of ghosts." she added, bringing Beast Boy's unease back in full force after having just appeased him. On his shoulder, Zippy hunched low, also keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.

"Say we were to locate a ghost or two, how would one defeat one if such a task became necessary?" Starfire asked nervously as she too removed her blade from it's sheath, holding its comforting sharpness at the ready.

"You don't." Brave replied, and her three companions sweat-dropped. Seeing this, the mage quickly explained. "Oh, don't worry. Ghosts can't kill you! I mean, if you go through them, they would just go through you too. They can't actually harm people unless they can use magic, which is rare. Otherwise, if they go through you, it just sends a kind of shiver through you. Nothing more." Beast Boy felt a little better at this explanation, and he could tell the other two did as well when they relaxed visibly.

The large entrance in the biggest mausoleum before them seemed to fit in with the graveyard setting. The giant wooden double-doors, the bars over the windows, the torches on either side of the doors that cast eerie shadows all around. All of it was shrouded in mist, giving it a high in what Beast Boy called the 'creep factor': this being an 8 out of 10 in creepiness. Now all they needed were some of those "turn back" crows Beast Boy and Cyborg had met before, and it would be a ten. He even bet- Yup. When Brave opened one of the giant doors, it let out a high pitched creaking noise as it moved on its old hinges, sending a shiver down the changeling's spine. He could already tell this place was going to be a _blast_ to go through.

What do you know, cobwebs. That was the first thing he noticed upon the group's entrance in the structure. Cobwebs everywhere. Of coarse. Can't have a creepy monastery in a gloomy, mist-filled graveyard if it's not infested with cobwebs. That would be, like, an insult to creepy monasteries everywhere, and then this one would have no friends. Can't have that. And, oh look, sarcophagi! Covered in more cobwebs! Fabulous!

Brave moved forward, seemingly unfazed by her surroundings, and she moved around the giant room, seeming to look for something. As she finally reached the second to last sarcophagus on the left side of the room, she loosed an "Ah hah!", and her three companions hurried over.

"What's special about this one?" Beast Boy asked confused. It looked just like every other sarcophagus in here, just a stone box big enough to fit a dead person. The only difference was that this one had the name 'Burt Smith' written on it where the others had different names.

"It's a decoy." Brave replied as she moved forward. She then crouched down, rested one ear against the side of the stone case, and rapped it twice with her knuckles. Apparently pleased with the sound, she then placed both hands on the edge of the lid and pushed. The lid slid off and landed on the ground with a loud thud, revealing a ladder inside that extended through the nonexistent floor of the sarcophagus. So, if this wasn't actually where a dead guy was, who did the name belong to? And where were they?

"Who is Burt Smith?" Starfire asked, apparently confused on that as well.

"Just a common name. I don't actually know one." Brave replied as she looked down the hole in the stone box. "But, almost no one would think to look inside a sarcophagus for a secret entrance, so the name is just a phony meant to throw people off. I guess it didn't work, though." With that aloof statement, Brave hopped on top of the sarcophagus wall and hopped onto the ladder, climbing down. The trio was quick to follow, Zippy simply flying down.

Brave, being in the lead, was the first to notice that the ladder didn't extend very far past the ceiling, so she dropped, landing in shin deep water. She narrowed her eyes. This water shouldn't have been here; the sewer type corridors were supposed to be empty. She moved forward, allowing her companions to follow her down, though she still observed her surroundings suspiciously, looking for anything missing or out of place. The torches, already lit, were normal, and the stone walls seemed to have no changes. The only difference was the water. Beast Boy's thoughts followed a rather more simplistic route: no cobwebs!

"Get out of the water." Brave suddenly told them hurriedly as she hurried over to the side of the small waterway in the floor they had landed in, climbing onto dry land. The two bipeds still in the water hurried after her, alarmed by the urgent tone in her voice.

"What is it?" Beast Boy asked once on dry land, and Brave continued looking at the water.

"You can't let that water touch your skin." She informed them, though not dispelling any confusion. "It's not supposed to be here, and I'm assuming that, if it does come into contact with your skin, it instills dread. It's probably enchanted to do so, and we especially need to keep it off of our faces. In high enough doses, it could probably cause paralysis by fear or insanity." The three companions nodded, glancing warily at said water. Water that instilled dread. That was a new one.

"Come on, it's this way." Brave then said casually as she began walking down the corridor. Her companions blinked at the sudden change in demeanor. Was she just messing with them? No, she wouldn't do that here. So, the four walked, or flew in Zippy's case. The sewers were pretty much a maze, almost like the one Beast Boy and Cyborg had found Timid in. Only, this time, the walls were curved, making the corridor cross-sections look like half circles, and there was no open space above them. After a while, the changeling almost wondered if they were lost, but Brave seemed to be calm. After about a half an hour of sneaking around and leaping over the ravine to get to the other side, the group came to a larger, square hallway.

"Ah, now we're getting somewhe-" Brave started to say as she stepped into the hallway, but she was cut off when the ground started rumbling. Beast Boy yelped, and Starfire squeaked as both were knocked off of their feet by the intense, earthquake-like tremors. Brave somehow managed to remain standing, but only by using the wall for support. When rocks began to shake loose from the ceiling, he grew worried, and all of them shielded their faces from the falling ruble, Zippy avoiding them in the air. When Beast Boy noticed a cluster of large rocks fell from above Zippy, who wouldn't be able to get out of the way, he reacted instinctively. The green teen jumped to his feet, nearly falling again from the tremors, and pushed the little dragon out of the way. The rocks barely missed the both of them, but the changeling then noticed something wrong.

When his foot should have touched solid stone, it instead fell through it! He knew the floor had been there, and yet his leg was vanishing into the stone! And the rest of him was quickly following! He was then falling down some sort of hole before painfully hitting some sort of ramp, and he was then rolling, tumbling through the dark. After Beast Boy was sore all over, the tunnel ramp decided that would be a good time to end. He hit the back of his head on the edge of the ramp before he landed hard on the ground a few feet below. For a second, he just wanted to lay there, but he knew he couldn't. The green teen, who now probably looked like a bruised vegetable, groaned in pain and rolled onto his stomach, holding the back of his head and gritting his teeth.

"Oow..." he ground out, the sound muffled by the ground. It was then he realized the rumbling had stopped. Looking around, spots dotting his vision, the changeling saw he was alone in another torch lit sewer, though there was no water in this one. He supposed he could take a little solace from that. From what Brave had said, assuming she was telling the truth without exaggeration, the stuff wasn't fun. Groaning in pain once more as he stood up, the changeling had to lean against the rim of the ravine, immense pain in his lower back sparking. Man, he was _so_ going to need a vacation after all of this. As he leaned against the partial wall the ravine made, his breathing slowly began to return to normal.

"Run!" came Raven's sudden and urgent tone in his mind, and Beast Boy eyes snapped open. He then almost thought the earthquake was starting back up, but the vibrations going through the ground were different than before. Smaller. The roaring coming from down the corridor immediately drew his attention, and he turned to see water rush in from around the corner. His eyes widened in shock, and he turned the other way, sprinting down the corridor.

"Turn right ahead!" Raven said, and he nodded before doing so. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed the wall of water flowed over the edge of the ravine, filling half of the corridor, and it was getting close. Looking back to where he had turned, the changeling found himself facing a much shorter corridor. There was a stone door at the top of some stairs on the right side, but a good portion of the staircase had crumbled. Not only was the staircase crumbled, but the stone door was sliding shut!

"Jump, Beast Boy! Jump!" Raven shouted in his head when he glanced back over his shoulder. Cursing under his breath—literally: water would now and forever be cursed to suffer to his thirst without mercy—the changeling sprinted forward, hitting the stairs at an angle. He bounded up the few steps at the bottom and then jumped, taking a few strides up and across the wall, and jumped again. He barely managed to roll onto the platform above and slid under the stone door that was two feet from closing. Beast Boy pulled his limbs away from the door and shut his eyes tight.

The echoing thud told him the door had shut, and, at the following crash-like thud, he scrambled backwards right before a little water flowed through the bottom of the door. It didn't get too much larger than a puddle and then flowed back to where it had come from. The changeling heaved a sigh of relief. The room he had entered was small, with a narrow hallway extending from the wall directly across from Beast Boy. Torches were only lit in the corridor, so the room the changeling was in was only half lit. Looking at the now closed door, he noticed the water was now completely gone. His awesome wall sprint and roll then came back to the changeling's mind, and he grew excited.

"Ha hah! Did you see that?" he asked Raven ecstatically. "You should call me 'Neo Beast Boy' from now on! That was awesome!" he cheered.

"Alright, Mr. Anderson, now you've got to go meet up with the others." Raven replied in a monotone, though the 'Mr. Anderson' was said in a teasing voice.

"Hey, you got the reference." Beast Boy said with a smile.

"Everyone gets that reference, Neo." said Raven flatly.

"That's not true. There's hobos who've lived on the streets their whole lives, hermits, kids with over-protective parents, Big Foot." Beast Boy rattled off names, not noticing the movement in the darker side of the room. "Big Foot probably doesn't even have a TV, though, and when he breaks into peoples' houses to watch cable, The Matrix is probably never o-"

"Beast Boy!" Raven snapped, cutting him off abruptly. Beast Boy was about to snap back with a very adult-like retort when he heard the movement on the other end of the room. Turning his head, he saw a shadow moving and immediately sprung to his feet, whipping his swords out. As soon as the creature stepped into the light, his eyes widened.

Ho. Ly. Crap!_ Mummy_! Lizard mummy. _Lizard_ mummy! Its legs were reptilian in shape and it had a tail, but it's head was more like Xérónick's, in that it was more humanoid. Not only that, but the dude was _huge_—or past dude, but whatever. He was easily seven feet tall when hunched! The bandages were coming undone in some areas, revealing rotting skin beneath—strange that it didn't have scales. The most obvious thing, though, other than the stench, was that the thing didn't have eyes.

"Duuude..." Beast Boy breathed out nervously, backing up instinctively. "What is _that_?" he asked as it continued to step forward, staring at him with its empty eye sockets. Oh, and maggots. Can't forget the maggots coming out of them. Creep factor: 9.5.

"A Neophage." was Raven's short reply.

* * *

Well, that's chapter 13. This temple is actually based off of the Well in Zelda, because I couldn't think of how to realistically add the water breathing needed in a Water Temple" without magic, and I really want Timid to be called Fear. I just think that's cool for some reason. I hope you all liked this chapter, and please leave comments. I'd like to know first impressions of Arin and Kate as well. They are characters from the books I'm writing, but they start out in their late teens in those. I know they weren't in this much, but they'll be in it a little more later. They won't have world changing roles, or anything. Oh, and, no, they're not related, just so you all know. Anyway, see you all next chapter.


	14. The Deepest Fears

After the maelstrom of writer's block that hit me, I finally regained inspiration for this in the form of a sequel, more details to come. For now, though, I've got about two chapters complete including this one, with the rest planned out decently well. I don't think I'll give myself deadlines anymore as that is probably how my writer's block started in the first place; I seem to get less creative when I worry about deadlines too. Just know that I'll try to get these chapters out as soon as possible.

To FelynxTiger: Ah, I've never heard that exclamation. Is there one for every line of the keyboard, or is it just that one; seems interesting. I loved the song of the Nocturne of Shadow! And the Serenade of Water, but details. I hope the action is awesome in this chapter too, but I think this is more of a suspense section.

To pugluv24: I've always wanted to use G.I. Jane in something, and what better than for a go-get-em rambo mage? Thank you for the kind words, and I hope the delayed update time is worth the rest of this story. Also, there's more BB/Rae (BB/Brave?) in this chapter.

Thanks for reviewing, now on to the story!

* * *

The zombie lizard raised it's human-esque hand, revealing sharp claws at its cloth free fingertips, the material cut by the razors they had once covered. With alarming speed, the creature charged forward, slashing downward with its built in weapons, and Beast Boy dove to the side, the claws cutting the sleeve of his armor. He grimaced in pain when it drew blood and darted through the only hallway he could see in the room. The creature, a neophage, Raven had called it, was right on his heels.

Upon entering the next room, a little larger than the last and lit much better—more cobwebs, yay!—the changeling turned, now moving backwards, and shifted his weight from foot to foot. The thing attacked again with its claws, and he moved to the side, avoiding its strike, and drove his sword through the thing's left shoulder.

'Hah! That had to hurt!' Beast Boy though with a smirk, but the confidence quickly faded when it backhanded him hard. The changeling flew back a couple of feet before tumbling to the ground, his second blade still in the neophage's shoulder. It hadn't even flinched!

"Uh..." he let out the dubious syllable, now unsure of how he was supposed to beat this thing if it couldn't feel pain. Would cutting its head off work? It seemed to work in all the zombie apocalypse movies.

"You need to cut it's limbs off." came the explanation from Raven, and he was about to ask why when the thing lunged forward once more. With an alarmed shriek, Beast Boy dove to the side again, and the razor sharp claws cut slashes into the wall. He had to jump back as it attacked again with the other arm, narrowly missing his stomach; how could it even still _use_ both arms?

"It's got a seal somewhere that lets it move. Separating the limb the seal is on will render the rest of it useless." Raven explained further, and Beast Boy knew he would just have to go with it. There wasn't any time to ask what she was talking about anyway. Okay, so, cut off the limbs. Yeah, simple enough, right? For some reason, though, the neophage had stopped moving as it seemed to be struggling with something. It wasn't too long before Beast Boy heard some kind of ripping sound, and he then noticed the thing's jaw was moving. Uh-oh. That couldn't be good. His body wouldn't comply to his commands of attacking as he watched the bandages over its mouth slowly start to tear apart, revealing two inch teeth that reminded him of that really creepy fish at the bottom of the ocean with a lightbulb on its antenna(1).

It lunged forward, first attempting to cut the changeling in half, and, when that didn't work as the changeling jumped to the side, it bit at him, barely missing his nose. Beast Boy stumbled backwards, his nerves making him clumsy, but immediately got back to his feet. As the thing continued to attack, the green teen flipped over a swipe, bouncing off of its shoulders and landing behind the neophage, and then slashed, cutting off the lower half of its left arm. The mummy didn't seem to feel it again, as it just turned and attacked with the other arm, prompting Beast Boy to roll under it, turning to watch it's advance as he started moving farther down the hallway. The thing chased after him, the changeling's other sword still in it's shoulder, and lunged again. There was his chance!

Beast Boy tilted to the side to avoid the attack, sword already in the air, and brought it down, cutting its other arm off at the bicep. Another quick swipe, and the thing's head was cleaved clean off. The changeling wasn't sure which one had the seal Raven told him about, but what was left of the neophage fell backwards and stopped moving. He sighed in relief as he removed his second sword from its torso and sheathed both. Man, that thing was freaky... Make that doubly freaky, as he just noticed its head was trying to bite at him still. Well, at least it couldn't move around to get to him. The changeling just hoped-

His head snapped up when he heard the sound of many feet running across the floor, and he cautiously looked down the corridor he had just come from.

"Run, Beast Boy! Run!" Raven yelled in his head right before he saw that the sound was caused by a whole horde of neophages! This was starting to feel an _awful lot_ like a zombie apocalypse movie.

"Aah!" the changeling shrieked before turning on his heel and following Raven's very good advice.

_Robin Centered POV:_

Robin looked around the room at the makeshift team that had come together. Well, the two additions that made their team close to complete in number, anyway. Bushido, whom Robin had only met a few times before, had shown up while the two remaining Titans were out on a mission, helping them beat Singed, one of the new villains around town. Having none of their flying teammates, Robin and Cyborg had been having difficulties catching the thief, who could use his fire to do so. That is, until he was looking behind himself at his pursuers and Bushido heel kicked him out of the air while his attention was turned. The normally silent samurai had explained briefly that a friend had told him of their troubles, and he had come to assist until the three currently inaccessible titans could return.

Robin had been surprised, to say the least, when Jynx had suddenly shown up at the tower about a week later. After she had helped them face Doctor Light a few years ago, the Boy Wonder had heard nothing about the enchantress. Arriving at their front door, she had given a similar story as Bushido in that she had 'heard from a friend' and came to offer her assistance. Still being a few titans short, Robin could hardly refuse the offer. The villains in Jump City had quickly discovered that three of the city's guardians were currently 'out of the office', so to speak, and had acted accordingly, trying anything whenever they could. It had quickly become too much for two titans to handle alone. Bushido's assistance had somewhat calmed things at first, but they were still only three in number. It was Jynx's appearance that let the makeshift team finally start to get a handle on the situation, as they were then only one member short of a full team.

Both teens had done some growing up in the past few years, as had all of titans. Bushido had seemingly become an even _better_ swordsman, specializing in the naginata and in duel wielding the hachiwara. Robin doubted the samurai had cut his hair once since their last meeting, as it now reached to the small of his back, pulled into a tight ponytail at the base of his head with a single strand falling into his face. His attire now consisted of a black juban, a blue kataginu—cut off at the belt—and black pants tucked into blue over black samurai boots. The thing that stuck out most as 'different' was the scar he now sported on his left cheek. He still hadn't informed the rest of the temporary team how he had received it or by whom.

Jynx had done a little changing as well. Her hair too had grown, though not as much as Bushido's. She now wore it in a single high ponytail, her bangs now partially covering her left eye. Her attire had mostly remained the same, though Robin would have sworn it seemed more pointier and more... flowy, for lack of a better term, since the last time he had seen her. The heavy black boots remained, the soles still purple, and her hair color would still stick out in a crowd. All in all, she actually hadn't really changed all that much, but it was enough to notice.

They had both proven to be good allies, but that didn't mean Robin could forget his three friends who were somewhere out there, possibly in some kind of danger he couldn't even imagine. A week after Beast Boy and Starfire had gone off to find Raven, Robin had discretely sent for the assistance of the Justice League's tracker team, as none of the trio's comm units showed up on the radar. He had done so through Batman to keep the Justice League from knowing the troubles one of his teammates was currently having—they weren't exactly known for their compassion when it came to such things—and the dark knight of Gotham had agreed to ask them when he could get the chance. Video recordings being too easy to hack into, he said he would to speak to them in person, understanding Robin's desire for discretion. Neither of them, however, had expected the duo to be out on an undercover mission at the time, and they especially hadn't expected that mission to take a few weeks to complete. To say the young martial arts specialist had been displeased would have been a grave understatement. But, thankfully, the two had set off almost immediately upon hearing the request.

The waiting was the worst part. It had been a month, now. A month since Raven had attacked the city and three of Robin's friends had left. A month since he had seen or heard from any of them... A month since he had seen Starfire. Of course he missed all of them, but he missed her the most. How could he not, he wondered as he absentmindedly fingered the metal band under the glove of his fourth finger. Only a few days ago had Robin told Cyborg that he had recently proposed to the Tamaranian Princess. Their friend had been overjoyed to hear the news, of coarse, and they had had a small celebration in the form of an outing to the bowling alley. It had been fun, but Robin couldn't keep the alien girl from his mind for very long, worrying over her well being.

Looking out the window to the city the titans had called home for years, Robin wondered where they currently were and how their quest was going. It was getting closer to summer now, and the Boy Wonder couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach that something bad was soon to happen. He only hoped he was wrong and that his friends would come home alright.

_Zippy Centered POV:_

The little dragon stared wide-eyed at the scene before him. He was sitting to the side of a big room he and the two heroines had entered. Upon entering, though, the three had noticed they were definitely _not_ alone. Strange, cloth covered, creatures filled the room and had begun attacking when they noticed the trio.

The little dragon flinched as the upper half of one of those things suddenly landed in front of him. When it started to move, he quickly lit it on fire, and it soon quit trying to get to him, as all the other random moving parts sent his way had. It was odd. The pieces only seemed to be able to move some of the time, and it wasn't usually the same parts that could. An arm, a torso with only legs left, half a torso with a head and one arm, a leg. Odd. Zippy returned to his seat, watching as carnage ensued on the unlucky beasts. Starfire was cutting them apart easily with her colossal sword, and Brave easily evaded most of their attacks, usually cutting off arms, legs, and heads with her wrist blades.

After Beast Boy had saved Zippy from the cave-in and fallen down that hole, the warrior and the mage had gone on a rampage, eager to regroup with their comrade. The voice from the sky, Raven they had called it, had told them the green boy was farther in and would meet up with them soon as she told everyone where to go. He thought the voice sounded an awful lot like Brave, as had all of the other females they had met—though only after defeating them. Oh well.

A sudden high pitched and familiar shriek drew the three companions' attention almost immediately, and all turned just as none other than Beast Boy barreled out of the stairs on the far side of the room, a hoard of the creatures, larger than the one currently under attack by the two super heroines, ran out after him. After the initial shock passed, Zippy squealed in delight upon seeing his friend again and took to the air instantly. Taking in a breath as he neared the changeling, the little dragon felt the familiar glands in his throat expand, and he unleashing a stream of fire over the green one's shoulder. The wrapped creatures scattered, fire being quite effective against them, but a group of them was still lit, running around in a comically nonsensical manner as they burned. Zippy smirked mentally at his small success before turning to land on Beast Boy's Shoulder.

"Thanks, buddy!" the green titan greeted happily as Zippy rubbed his face against his cheek, chirping happily. The little dragon then noticed one of the creatures running at them, and he prepared to shoot a fire ball at it. The changeling had apparently seen it too, as he began to raise one of his swords to attack.

"Hyaah!" Brave hollered, flying over both of their heads and landing in front of Beast Boy, cutting the creature clean in half with one of her wrist blades before it could reach them. "Hooaah!" she cheered in victory as it fell backwards, the changeling and dragon sweat-dropping at her sudden yet definitely not unwelcome appearance. Starfire then cut the head and right arm off of another in one sweep as she rolled between the group, cutting the legs off of another when she landed.

"Oh, hey, guys! Or girls. Raven really knows her way around this place. I would have gotten _so_ lost on my way here!" Beast Boy laughed sheepishly. Brave and Starfire looked about to respond, but everyone froze when the wrapped creatures started organizing themselves once more, surrounding them. The group of super teens quickly turned to stand back to back, weapons raised at the hoard of mummy-esque enemies. The changeling nearly felt like shrinking back when he looked around him at all of the growling, teeth baring lizard mummies. Of coarse. Rotting, foul stench emitting mummies weren't scary enough. Nooo. They had to have mouths full of fangs that would put all pale, light deprived vampires who aspired to be anybody to shame! Glancing at his companions, though, Beast Boy noticed they did not appear to feel the same way. Starfire and Zippy looked unworried, and Brave was actually _smirking_.

"Alright, guys! Let's clean house!" Raven's green-clad emotion announced riotously before leaping forward. Beast Boy was a little surprised she didn't say something like, 'Glorious battle!' as she began to masterfully tear the mummies apart.

_Mixed POV:_

"Friend Beast Boy, you are unharmed!" Starfire cheered delightedly as she picked the changeling up in a hug Brave was sure the Tamaranian girl didn't register as 'bone crushing'. They had just defeated the hoard of neophages, and the alien girl was beyond ecstatic to see their friend once again.

"He won't be if you break him." the green-clad mage responded simply, Zippy perched on her shoulder, and Starfire looked at her, slightly confused. Then noticing how tightly she was hugging Beast Boy, his eyes nearly bulging from the pressure, she released him, and he immediately gasped for breath. Brave was happy to see that some things never changed, even if almost everything else had. The Tamaranian Princess was about apologize to the changeling, who was taking in deep breaths with his hands braced on his knees, when he waved his hand dismissively.

"Trust me, I'm glad to see you guys too." he responded breathlessly with a lopsided grin, a grin which made the sorceress's face heat up slightly, and she quickly took her eyes off of him, looking anywhere else. She just happened to look at Zippy to notice the little non-dragon was grinning at her in an amused, if not teasing, way. This caused her face to heat up a little more, and she quickly drew up her hood, the little lizard grinning wider in victory.

"Those things are _creepy_." the changeling, not noticing this exchange, added as he motioned to the dismembered parts of the neophages lying all around the companions, and he flinched away from an arm when it moved to grab him. It was quickly burned to a crisp by Zippy and ceased its attempts promptly. For these particular lizard mummies, fire equaled good, so long as it was used by the ones _attacking_ them. She doubted _they_ liked it very much.

Soon afterward, the companions continued their trek through the maze of corridors underneath the monastery, occasionally dispatching a neophage or two along the way, and they soon reached a room that Brave immediately recognized. The antechamber to the center was next.

The large, dimly lit room they were currently in was a little unorthodox, but it had been made to be that way. The entrance quickly gave way to create a lower level along with the one they were currently on and a third level above them. Layers of rocky platforms marked the levels, and pathways made of magic snaked around the room, connecting many of the platforms. Darkness was all that was visible bellow, but Brave knew what lied withing the black depths. Spikes. The shadowed floor was covered in spikes that would impale any who fell.

"Whoa!" Beast Boy exclaimed, looking over the edge of the first platform and into the darkness. Alarmed, Brave quickly grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him away from the ledge.

"We need to be careful. Do _not_ fall off the platforms." she said seriously when he looked at her confused. Her three companions paused before nodding, all of them catching the look she gave them that said they didn't want to know the specifics. If they did know of the three foot spikes that were spread across the bottom with four in an area of one square foot, they might grow nervous and jumpy, possibly increasing their chances of falling.

"Alright, so the door on the far end of the room is locked." Brave began her short explanation, indicating the door on the far end of the room, directly across from them. "There are four small spheres of light hidden in the room, and we need to collect all of them to unlock the door. But, because of the magic that creates a random generator of sorts, not even _I_ know where the spheres are." the mage finished, and they all nodded again. With that, Brave quickly lead the way across the path connected to the left side of the platform.

After a few minutes of searching through the winding pathways, occasionally having to jump between platforms when the paths ended, the group found one of the spheres. About the size of a marble, the purple ball of light was floating over the center of the platform ahead. To get there, though, the companions would have to jump across two smaller platforms. That wouldn't have been so tricky if they weren't spinning around one another in a circular motion.

"So, we just go get the light?" Beast Boy asked to no one in particular, but Brave nodded anyway. With a nod of her own, Starfire stepped forward, preparing herself as one of the rotating platforms got nearer. As soon as it was a few feet away from them, she ran forward and jumped, landing in a kneeling position perfectly in the center of the moving rock—its circumference being a little more than the width of her shoulders. The changeling sweat-dropped. Why did he have the feeling that she had just made it look a lot simpler than in was? As Starfire's platform neared their destination, the second platform neared the larger group, and Brave, Zippy still on her shoulder, prepared herself. Both girls jumped at the same time, Starfire tumbling gracefully onto the platform with the ball of light and Brave landing on the second small platform, again in a way that made Beast Boy believe it was way harder that it looked. Taking in a deep breath, he too prepare himself as the platforms continued to circle. Nearer... Nearer.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." the changeling muttered under his breath in a attempt to quell his nerves, which didn't work all too well. Ready... There! Both he and Brave jumped at the same time, the mage joining Starfire at their destination. The changeling cheered mentally when his feet landed on the platform! …And then cursed mentally when he slipped. His back slamming hard into the small platform, he was barely able to grab the ledge with one hand as he went over, alarmed cries from Starfire and Zippy reaching his ears.

"I'm okay; I got this!" the changeling shouted back reassuringly as he got one arm over the ledge. Pulling himself up, he sighed in relief upon sitting on solid, compared to the air anyway, ground. As soon as it was in range, he lumped again, the landing on the larger platform going a little more smoothly. After the three who had had no troubles checked to see if he was okay, to which he steadfastly assured them he was fine, Brave touched the small orb of light. It zoomed off at her touch, and, the door being visible from their angle, the companions saw it land in one of four small slots, two on each side of the door.

"One has been collected!" Starfire cheered happily, and Beast Boy groaned. Were they all gonna' be like that?

Twenty minutes later, the companions had found two more spheres of light. One had been on the top level, guarded by a series of large guillotines and fire jets that would activate when someone got too close. The other had been on the first level too—well, more like between the first and bottom levels. Since it had been in the air in the diagonal path between platforms of both levels, Zippy had been the one to grab it, sending the third of four flying off towards the door; that one had definitely been the easiest.

Now, the group currently stood in front of a platform, much larger than the others, in a corner of the room on the bottom level, the final orb floating over the center. The platform being longer than it was wide, the rock wall running parallel to the group had three large and familiar horizontal slits running through it.

"More dicers, huh?" Beast Boy asked, though it wasn't really a question. Brave's eyes narrowed slightly. Something didn't seem right. That trap was far too obvious. The giant slits on the wall would hardly go unnoticed by anyone after having run into them before. Not to mention the fact that the platform had a larger base than all the others, extending about a dozen feet down before joining the rock wall. Just as her thought process was finishing, Beast Boy ran forward all of a sudden, intending to make a move for the orb.

"No, wait!" the mage shouted after him, just then realizing there was more than one trap, but it was already too late. As soon as he passed the threshold of the platform, a loud click sounded, and he rolled just as the first rotating guillotine blade shot out from the slit on the wall. The blade passed over him, and he jumped over the next, using it as a stepping stone to flip over the third. As he landed, he reached for the sphere of light, but as he touched it, sending it speeding off for the door, another click sounded. One instant, the floor beneath Beast Boy's feet was there, and the next it wasn't, fading away into nothingness. A pit filled with water was revealed, and, in that same instant, chains shot out from the water, the iron cuffs on the ends snapping shut around the changeling's ankles as he was still in midair. Unable to catch himself on anything, the suddenly and understandably distressed super teen was pulled down, disappearing into the dark depths of the water.

"Beast Boy!" both girls shouted in terror as Zippy loosed a terrified screech. Without hesitation, Brave then darted forward, also avoiding the three guillotines, and dove into the water, leaving two stunned companions in her wake. The water was cold and biting, and the much more prominent problem was the mental effects the water caused, especially when diving into it, but the green-clad emotion dove even deeper. Beast Boy had been dragged to the bottom of the ten-foot pit, ankles still clutched in the vice-grip of the enchanted leg irons, but he wasn't even trying to free himself. He was too busy clutching his head and writhing as if in pain, trying futilely to keep the images forcefully pushed into his mind at bay.

Crouching down on the pit floor, Brave activated one of her wrist blades, the sound altered slightly by the water, and stuck it in the middle of one of the chain links. A simple twist of her wrist and the link snapped. Swerving quickly around the struggling changeling, she then repeated the process with the other chain; they snapped easily, as they were enchanted to move on their own, but they were not structurally reinforced. After all, no other person—or emotion, for that matter—would have the kind of resistance to the cursed water that Brave did. While she was forced to push the images flashing through her mind aside—not a simple task, even for her—she was still able to move and think, unlike Beast Boy, who may not even know he was underwater.

The chains no longer holding him down, Brave wrapped her arms around the changeling's middle and pushed off of the pit floor. They broke the surface of the water seconds later just as the mage's breath was running short, both super teens gasping for air. As Starfire, who had rushed to the edge of the pit as soon as both of her friends disappeared into its depths, lifted the incapacitated changeling out of the water, Brave hoisted herself out. Though, now with that task done and no longer distracting her mind, the visions intensified.

Fire. All she could see was fire. The flames had consumed everything, every building in sight, reaching hundreds of feet into the air. They hungrily and unceasingly ate everything of the city she had once known as Jump City. ...She was too la – no! She wasn't! There was still time! The mage clutched her head, gritting her teeth as she forced the images back. They were hallucinations, mental manifestations of her fears. They meant nothing!

Even as she was reaffirming this notion with herself, the images around her faded to once again show the dimly-lit dungeon-esque room within Timid's realm. She breathed heavily as she lowered her hands, the hallucinations having been pushed completely away when she broke through the enchantment of the water via willpower. Looking around quickly, she vaguely noticed that her now soaked hood was somehow still up and that the swinging guillotines had been ripped out of the wall before her attention went to her three companions. Starfire, Zippy on her shoulder, was trying to calm down a frantic and unresponsive Beast Boy as he sat on the floor in a near fetal position with a look of sheer terror on his face.

"Beast Boy, can you hear me?" the Tamaranian girl asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder, but he immediately drew back, cowering away from her and only halting his movement when he got dangerously close to the edge of the platform. At this, Starfire turned to look at Brave, fear for their comrade evident in her eyes.

"Please, what is wrong? Why will he not respond?" the alien girl asked Brave frantically. Beast Boy's hands were shaking as he held them next to his head defensively, and his eyes were darting wildly around as though he was seeing something terrifying. Anyone else following his gaze would see that there was clearly nothing there to be afraid of.

"He's hallucinating. Too much of the water has come into contact with his skin." The mage responded tiredly without removing her eyes from the changeling, and Starfire thought she looked as though she was either unsure of what to do or was arguing with herself over what to do. Brave stood, looking suddenly fatigued and still in deep thought, and joined Starfire.

"Is there a way to stop them?" the Tamaranian asked, Zippy whining on her shoulder as he watched his frightened friend.

"...Yes. If one breaks through the hallucinations or is broken out of them, the water currently in contact with them looses its enchantment, and the effects wear off. He can likely still see us, even if he may not be able to hear us so... we need to shock him out of this." Brave replied, her gaze still unwavering from the cowering changing as she folded her arms across her midriff, almost as though she were uncomfortable.

"Shock him how?" This question, getting to the nitty-gtitty details of the issue drew the mage's attention away from Beast Boy and to Starfire, and the alien girl then noticed how conflicted her eyes looked, though she had no idea what about. The empath was indeed arguing with herself over... something.

"Something urgent, unusual, or unexpected... But it has to be significant. Humor won't work here like it did with Mad Mod's hypnosis. This is a much stronger illusion." This explanation erased some of Starfire's confusion, but created more in the process. What could draw Beast Boy's attention more than humor? Nothing that passed through the alien princess's mind seemed significant enough aside from one of his friends being put in harm's way. They had to think of _something_, though. Beast Boy was becoming worse by the second and was now struggling to free himself from something that wasn't there, apparently grabbing at him from the ground.

"I just hope he doesn't take it the wrong way..." Starfire turned to look at the mage at the barely audible sentence to see her head was turned downward, eyes closed as she still argued with herself. The alien girl was about to ask what she meant when her eyes opened once again. Her jaw clenched tightly, and she took a deep breath as though to prepare herself or to push aside any remaining doubts and stepped forward.

Kneeling down in front of the still terrified Beast Boy, Brave lowered her soaked hood, expression unreadable. The changeling seemed to freak out even more when she got closer, though his gaze was focused over the green-clad mage's shoulder instead of on her. He must have been seeing something behind her, the Tamaranian girl noticed. The aforementioned mage said nothing, knowing it wouldn't help the changeling or ease his current worries. Her next course of action surprised both Starfire and Zippy, for she placed her hands on either side of his face as she leaned forward and then pressed her lips to his.

Oh... Well, yes. ...Yes, that was _sure_ to shock him.

The changeling's eyes snapped open wide, his brain not seeming to process what was going on. Wgeuh- huh? Wait, what was she- Was Brave _kissing_ him? No, that couldn't be right... Could it? He blinked a few times, and the demonic creatures all around the group of companions started vanishing. The mud-like creatures that had been trying to drag him under the stone, the flaming eyes and mouth over the mage's shoulder, everything. They all vanished, none having actually been there in the first place. All except Brave, whose lips were still pressed to his.

The green-clad girl then gasped and quickly drew back, a hand to her temple as she gritted her teeth in pain. The changeling's brain was unable to form a coherent thought or question as she stood, quickly drew her hood up and moved to stand next to the wall at the side of the platform, a hand still pressed tightly to her temple with the other arm wrapped around her midriff. Beast Boy blinked a few more times before looking to Starfire and Zippy to see they looked just as shocked as he felt.

_Kate Centered POV:_

The trio had now moved far from the forest they had been in before. Raven had insisted it necessary as she had spent too much time there. So, once they made it to the edge of the forest, Arin had teleported them to the nearby coast; his range was limited to a few miles, and he was left nearly drained after each jump. So, now the group was sitting a the base of a large cliff, the high point of the tide a few feet from them. They had managed to find a cave on the shore, and Raven was currently sitting inside, Arin and Kate sitting outside as guards, taking turns between sleeping and keeping watch.

As the move had exhausted him, Arin was currently sleeping, which Kate knew wouldn't last long. In the years she had known him, the most she had ever seen the close-combat specialist sleep was somewhere between four and five hours. Never more, but usually less. How he never passed out from exhaustion, she never understood. Maybe it was because, for those few hours, he was _out_. It was one of the only times his face lost its guarded appearance, and he actually seemed calm. Surprisingly, given his quick to react nature, he was a really heavy sleeper most of the time.

Glancing at Raven in the cave behind them, Kate saw the mage was still meditating. She was one of the biggest enigmas Kate had ever encountered, and she lived at the Justice League headquarters where aliens where fairly commonplace. Usually, she could get a pretty good idea of what someone was capable of, but the empath's powers were almost a complete mystery to her. Not to mention, there was the fact that she never seemed to eat. Or sleep. She just sat there, meditating. Was meditation a form of sleep, or was it kind of like when someone was sitting down wit their eyes closed, neither resting nor being active.

"So, what's the word?" Arin asked suddenly, alerting Kate that his few hours of sleep were over, and she turned to look at him. He hadn't changed position between the two states of mind, still leaning against the wall and now looking out to setting sun.

"No one is in the area except us." Kate replied casually. "Well, us and the animals, of course." she added when a few fish jumped out of the water a ways off. Arin nodded in response, though he seemed distracted.

"...She's getting worse." he then said quietly, gaze still focused on the ocean in front of them, and Kate glanced back at said mage in the cave. It was true. In the couple of days since they had caught up with her, Raven had been getting more volatile, her temper running extremely short. If the vein standing out on her temple was any indication, she must have one heck of a headache; that was sure to _not_ help her mood any.

Whatever she was doing, though, Kate hoped it was helping her in defeating this demon the two energy manipulators had vaguely heard about. From what they had been told, the demon was vary bad news.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Starfire was almost glad when the door that would lead the companions to Fear came into view. The past fifteen minutes had been _incredibly_ awkward, almost unbearably so. Beast Boy walked to her right while Brave walked to her left, both going out of their way to look anywhere but at the other. The alien princess couldn't avoid feeling a little helpless at the moment. After all, what could she possibly do? The mage had been forced to kiss Beast Boy as she, or rather Raven, was still sorting out her feelings for him, and the green teen was sure to be confused now, especially since Brave wouldn't speak to him—going to extra lengths to keep that from happening.

Once she had gotten over the hallucinations caused by stopping Beast Boy's, Brave had actually said very little to anyone, seeming as though she were even more focused on simply getting through the temple than before. The once locked door having been opened, the companions had made their way out if the room and into what looked like an antechamber. So, that meant that the final room was through the large, telltale doors in front of them.

Stepping forward, noting the way Brave and Beast Boy tensed when she was no longer between them, the Tamaranian girl placed her hands on the door and pushed. A relatively simple task for her but not for others, the doors creaked in an oddly eerie fashion as they moved easily inward. When the group entered the familiar dome shaped room that marked the Center of the realm, Starfire's eyes fell onto the form of Raven's timid counterpart, sitting hunched over in the center of the room.

_BB Centered POV:_

She was just sitting there. Facing away from them as she sat in the center of the room, Timid, or Fear, was hunched over, rocking herself back and forth as she muttered to herself. Her cloak was different than the others' had been. The original gray Timid wore was now a lot darker, and the symbols that had been glowing on the cloaks of the others were now black. Why would hers be different? He didn't have time to ponder this when, as the group cautiously approached her, the girl's head suddenly snapped around to look at them, fangs bared and yellow eyes glaring at them from underneath her hood.

"Aah!" Beast Boy shrieked surprised, raising his hands defensively as he took a step back. As Fear stood to face the group, she rose into the air, darkness closing in around the companions until they could only see a few feet in front of them—a couple feet more in the changeling's case—and the possessed mage vanished into the shadows. Alarmed, the three 'guests' turned to Brave to see her give a sheepish smile.

"I forgot to mention that, didn't I?" she asked as she rubbed the back of her neck, letting out a somewhat nervous laugh.

"_How_ could you forget to tell us this? Isn't it a pretty _big_ problem that she can cast _darkness_!" the changeling asked panicked, momentarily forgetting that he was supposed to feel awkward around her. Though, Fear's darker colors now made sense to him. No point in casting a darkness spell if you were lit up like a Christmas tree. The four companions froze, then, a strange sensation coming over them before Zippy took off into the air, flying up and out of sight.

"Zippy!" Beast Boy yelled after him, and Brave put a hand on his shoulder. Looking at her, she shook her head and glanced around them, her wrist blades activating.

"He'll be fine. They can't get to him up there, and Fear won't attack him if he doesn't attack her." She then turned her attention back to the shadows around them, and as he too looked around he thought he heard her whisper something like, "It's you two I'm worried about." The changeling was about to ask what she meant, but when he turned back to look at her, he saw no one there. Neither Brave nor Starfire.

He was alone.

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Where had Beast Boy, Brave, and Zippy gone? One moment they had been right beside her, and the next minute, they were gone, leaving her alone in the darkness that was closing in around her. She backed up, frightened eyes darting around wildly. She had never been afraid of Raven, but the dark had always terrified her. It wasn't out of some childish notion that there were monsters that went bump in the night. She had just always feared the dark. The dark was where she was most vulnerable. She thrived in the light, as did her powers. She had always loved the light, and, the dark being the inherent absence of that light had thus always scared her, causing great worry to cloud her mind. Were circumstances normal, she would simply create a starbolt to draw back the darkness, but she couldn't. Not now. Why couldn't she? She couldn't seem to remember.

"You always were afraid of the dark, Star." came a familiar voice. A voice she had not heard for a time that seemed far too long. Turning quickly to face the source, she saw a steel-toed boot step into the light, the rest of the figure quickly following. The fear she had felt seconds before now seemed trivial when she then looked into the unmasked and completely white eyes of Richard Grayson. No...

"R-Robin! What are-"

"You never came back, Star. We waited for months, years, but you never came. You abandoned us. Why?" he asked monotonously, and her eyes widened in horror. What? No, she knew it wasn't possible. She may not quite remember where she was or why, but she _knew_ she had only been gone for a few days. Just a few days; they still had time! Thinking that didn't erase the dark gaze she was receiving from her beloved.

"You abandoned _me_. We were supposed to be married and yet you left me! How could you do that?" Anger had suddenly filled his voice, and Starfire then noticed his quarter staff was in his hand. She took an involuntary step back at the precipitous rage he was displaying, unsure of what she was supposed to say or how she was supposed to act. "It killed me." he continued, his fist tightening around the weapon in his hand.

"Pay... Pay... I-I'll make you _pay_!" he shouted outraged as he raised the weapon over his head for attack.

_BB Centered POV:_

The changeling glanced around cautiously, the darkness that loomed around him seeming to intensify. It didn't even register to him that he had taken a few steps backwards out of fear as the darkness seemed to get thicker, his mind fogging over with the growing darkness. Where was he? He couldn't remember. What had he been doing? Was it important? He wanted to leave. He didn't like it here; it felt... wrong, as though he were intruding, seeing things he shouldn't.

Movement to his right immediately drew Beast Boy's attention, but his eyes widened in horror at what he saw when he turned. An arm. The lower half of a bloodied arm had been casually tossed into the small circumference of light that seemed to follow him with every step.

"W-what... W-who di-?" he asked shakily, falling back as he tried to retreat away from the disembodied limb.

_ "It was you."_ a high pitched voice echoed around him, and his eyes widened even further.

_ "You."_

_"You did it."_ continued a series of echoed whispers, sending shivers down his spine.

"W-what?" he found himself asking, eyes not leaving the arm lying a few feet in front of him.

_ "You lost control."_

_ "No control."_

_ "Lost it."_

"Bu-" the changeling was about to protest, sure he could do nothing so horrible as to viciously remove someone's arm. He was a Titan; he protected people.

_ "Monster."_

_ "Beast."_

_ "You're dangerous."_

_ "Can't be trusted."_

_ "Monster."_

"N-no, I wouldn't-" the changeling shook his head in denial. He couldn't have...

_ "But you did."_

_ "You did."_

_ "Lost it"_

_ "Monster."_

"No, it's not-" he froze mid-sentence when a bestial foot then stepped into the light, its fur green in color. Slowly, the rest of the figure started to follow as a body, the rest of the arm, was dropped carelessly on the ground next to its disembodied limb, the face of the person no longer recognizable as such with the amount of carnage done to it. Light slowly revealed the features of the monster that had done this terrible thing. Clawed hands, standing on two legs, hunched over with fur covering the whole body, black stripes going down its back... White eyes. No...

The monster growled, blood dripping from its maw as it bared its fangs at the terrified changeling. No, it wasn't possible... He had gained control over it. It wasn't possible. He couldn't have...

The fiend roared in seeming protest to Beast Boy's thoughts of denial and charged forward, grabbing his neck before he could respond and and slamming him against the wall he hadn't known was just behind him. The changeling's hands clawed at the much larger hands of the monster in a futile attempt to pry himself free. He froze in fear, though, when he looked into the face of the creature that had him pinned, cold, soulless eyes staring right back.

The soulless eyes of the Beast.

* * *

The angler fish from Finding Nemo was what I was getting at with the teeth, though the neophage doesn't have the extra long teeth in the front; it's teeth are fairly uniform.

I'm still having trouble with a name for Wisdom's counterpart. I like the suggestion for Cynical made by Densharr, but I'm also looking for something along the lines of crafty or keen. Is there a word that is kind of a mixture between keen and cynical?

Thanks to anyone who's read this so far, and don't be afraid to review. _I'm_ not the rambo mage; Brave gets the privilege of that title.


	15. The Pressure Takes Its Toll

_Finally! Chapter fifteen has been completed! I'm terribly sorry for how long it took, but I had a lot of trouble writing this one simply because of how much happens in it. It's also the second longest chapter thus far at nearly 13, Times New Roman font size 12, pages. I was initially worried that the chapter wouldn't be long enough, but boy was I wrong!_

_Thank you to everyone who gave suggestions on Wisdom's name; you help has been greatly appreciated, and a decision has been made, along with another twist to the story I've decided to throw in._

_To FelynxTiger: I'm glad the chapter seems to have come out better than I thought it had. Hopefully it's the same with this one. I'll have to keep the exclamation thing in mind. I'm fairly certain this isn't the only time I've run into it._

_To Densharr: Thanks for the catch, and please let me know if you find any other homonym errors as they are what I have the most trouble with. Derision was a good suggestion, but I don't think it's quite right. Thanks for your input, though, and also for reminding me of that word: my vocabulary really is quite atrocious!_

_To Gabrielus Prime: That is actually perfect for what I'm going for! Thank you!_

_To BlackLabyrinth07: Thank you very much for your praise, warms my little heart. Actually, I'm fairly certain my heart is rather average I size, but details._

_To Dirdofdarkness: Thank you for all of the reviews, and I'm glad you're liking the story. I hope the remainder proves just as riveting, and I hope the long chapters make up for the time between updates._

_To wreakless: Wow, that must have taken you a long time! There are over a hundred pages in this story! I'm glad the epicness(is that a word?) is coming through at least somewhat in my writing :)_

_To Taeniaea:Thanks :D_

_On to the chapter!_

* * *

_TT_

_Starfire Centered POV:_

The alien warrior rolled out of the way, the quarter staff crushing the stone tile beneath her head. Getting to her feet as she quickly backed up, the Tamaranian girl took out her flamberge, raising it just in time to block the side sweep attack by Robin. She continued to be pushed backwards by his assault, the girl's fright making sure all she could do was block. And, the entire time, her muddled brain could find nothing she had done to prompt this aggressive behavior.

She wanted to know. She wanted to apologize for whatever it was that she had done to hurt him... but she couldn't for the life of her recall any wrongdoings. She was truly a terrible person, to drive the man she loved into such a frenzied, hurt rage without even remembering what she had done to him...

Robin continued his onslaught, not knowing the internal tirade of confusion going on inside the Tamaranian princess. He managed to break her guard and went in for a powerful vertical slash. Starfire deflected the crushing blow to the side and quickly moved out of the way of his side sweep. Moving backwards, though, she tripped, barely able to stop Robin's next attack by stabbing her sword tip into the ground next to her, her blade catching the quarter staff just before it hit her.

"Please, what have I done wrong?" the distraught girl asked desperately, tears threatening to fall as the helplessness of the situation set in. "I am sorry. W-whatever I have done, I a-am truly sorry." she apologized, unable to keep her lip from trembling as she spoke. Slowly, Robin stowed his quarter staff into his belt and reached down, grabbed the the cloth neck of her armor, and lifted the Tamaranian girl off the ground, bringing her face within inches of his own. His brows were furrowed in nothing short of maddening fury mixed with sorrow and pain, twisting his face into nothing she had ever seen, and he then snatched the thin chain around her neck and tore it off. Time seemed to slow as some of the links broke apart one by one, the small pieces of metal falling to the tiles below, each light clink as they bounced off the stone reverberating through the girl, breaking her heart a little each time. Robin then threw the chain, and the ring attached to it, to the side, an action that shattered most of what remained of Starfire's kind heart in a way no words ever could.

"I have _nothing_ else to say to you!" he spat venomously as his soulless eyes bore into hers. He raised a bird-a-rang, and the girl's tearing emerald eyes widened as all she could do was look on in terror. ...What was wrong? She couldn't remember doing anything to make him angry, so why was his arm raised for attack. What may have been left of her heart died, the tears breaking their threshold to fall down her cheeks, when she noticed he was going for a killing strike.

_TT_

_BB Centered POV:_

The Beast growled, a deep rumbling that sent shivers down the green titan's spine. This thing represented everything the changeling feared in himself. It was a being that operated purely on instinct, throwing compassion needlessly to the side as it was quick to resort to deadly force, not even blinking an eye at the carnage it so readily caused. _It_ was the source of the subtle nagging in the back of Beast Boy's mind. The nagging he got when he looked at Raven that told him to close the distance between them and take her for his own whether she wanted it or not. The changeling had far too much respect for the mage than that, but the Beast in him still wouldn't let up after all these years. It was actually _because_ of the Beast that he had never tried to pursue anything with the team's dark empath.

...He was afraid of what he might do to her, even if unintentionally.

But, one thing that came along with his fear of the Beast was rage. A rage and hatred towards this thing that haunted him and would likely always haunt him. At this instant, it was his rage he acted on, not his fear. Before it could react, the changeling's feet collided with the Beast's jaw, causing it to yelp and retreat momentarily. The green titan stalked forward, loosing a feral growl of his own as his furious gaze was locked onto the Beast. He wanted to beat this thing, to kill it, only if to protect Raven from the danger it posed.

"This body is _mine_! Not yours!" he barked ferociously, not noticing the way his pupils turned to slits, his fingernails shifted into claws, and his fangs grew longer. His remark was met with laughter, a low, malicious rumbling that emanated from the source of his rage.

"You have only aided in making the very opposite so." it growled cryptically. He then raised one of his arms, Beast Boy mirroring the movement against his will, and the changeling's eyes widened at the claws that now shaped his fingernails. ...No.

"No!" the green titan shouted, trying to deny what he was seeing, but this accomplished nothing but amusing the creature before him further. The low rumbling of its laughter started once more as it began to fade, slowly dissipating into dust. As _he_ vanished, the changeling was forced to watch his form mutate without his consent. His rage swiftly changing to fear muddled with frustration and self-loathing.

"No!" he screamed again as he started to claw at his arms, determined to removed the fur that he felt growing there. All this did was shred the sleeves of his armor and create deep, bleeding gashes in his arms, but he continued to claw. He had to stop the transformation! He just _had_ to! He couldn't let it take over!

_TT_

_Narrative POV:_

It was finished! This fact was amplified when Brave felt the familiar sensation of magic return to her, making her feel complete once more. Light gradually returned to the room, the mage's eyes readjusting to its presence at an unbearably slow pace. She worried as she wondered what had happened to the other titans. Being part of Raven and being the embodiment of bravery had both played crucial roles here. Being mostly brave, the green-clad emotion had had little difficulty breaking through Fear's illusion, and, being part of Raven, she had been able to sense the center much more acutely than the others. She had been able to draw the necessary array without her sight, an anticipated necessity. It was actually _for_ these reasons that Brave had come along—well, other than helping Starfire and BB.

When light permitted, Brave's eyes widened at the first thing, or person, she saw. Being much closer than her other comrades, Starfire quickly came into view, though something was clearly wrong. The normally cheerful and outspoken girl was sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around her head defensively as she cried, trying to make herself as small as possible.

"Starfire!" Brave cried out in worry as she dashed over to her friend and knelt next to the girl. "Starfire, are you alright?" the normally go-get-em mage asked hesitantly, knowing full well what the answer to that question was. The Tamaranian girl shook her head shakily, unable to speak, and buried her head in her knees. Brave placed a hand on her back as the girl sobbed, then noticed the ring lying a few feet from them. The band was silver, and three modestly sized diamonds were set into the intricately designed face. Of course... A wedding ring, undoubtedly from Robin. The green-clad emotion felt an unpleasant queasiness in her stomach as she could only imagine what kinds of terrible illusions and lies the poor girl had been forced to endure. Starfire's broken, trembling form was enough to tell of the earth-shattering pain that had been caused to her—this was also something Brave could sense through the empathy all of the emotional counterparts possessed.

Taking a deep breath, Brave then reach out and placed a hand lightly on Starfire's head, siphoning spiritual energies into the girl's mind. The Tamaranian Princess's breathing started to calm almost immediately, and the trembling stopped shortly after, the tears likely following. It wasn't too long before she was completely calm, the emotions she had been feeling before now residing in the empath next to her.

Dear, Azar! How had Starfire managed this? This was the only coherent thought running through the mage's mind as she struggled to even take a breath, a task that normally came without conscious thought but was now proving nearly impossible with almost all of her concentration. Brave choked as she held a hand clutched over her heart, her less than useful breaths coming in quick and shallow—she had never hyperventilated before. The pain she had sensed in the alien warrior was now far more intense than it had been through the looking glass of her empathy. It was like nothing she had ever experienced. ...Was this what a broken heart felt like?

Forcing her breathing to return to a somewhat controlled pattern—and simply holding her breath when that didn't work—Brave forced the siphoned energy out of her body, something much easier to do when it was physical wounds she was healing, and expelling it into the air. The pain in her heart slowly dissipated with it, leaving her free to breath once more, which she gladly did.

"...What was..." Starfire, now sitting up straight, started to ask, not understanding any of what had just happened.

"Reverse empathy." Brave replied simply, and she then looked around the room, searching for anything else she may need to help with. Once she found what she was looking for, the mage got back to her feet and hurried forward. Turning, Starfire saw Beast Boy was kneeling a few yards away from them, looking at his hands in an almost blank manner. Zippy had returned from the roof and was now crouched low on the changeling's shoulder, chirping as though trying to speak to the green titan. Starfire quickly stood and immediately moved over to grab her engagement ring from where it had been tossed aside, tucking it safely into a pouch on her belt.

As she turned to join her friends, she noticed Timid in the center of the room and paused. The mage wasn't doing anything. She was just kneeling there, turned away from the group like she had been when they first entered. Though, there were no markings on her cloak, which seemed lighter than it had been before. Deciding the emotional counterpart was simply meditating as all the others had been, the emerald eyed titan hurried over to where Brave was approaching the changeling, whose face was still blank as his gaze was locked onto his hands.

"Beast Boy?" the green-clad mage started cautiously as she knelt in front of him. Starfire caught up quickly, but her face paled slightly when she noticed the green titan's arms. The sleeves of his armor had been torn off, and innumerable bleeding cuts had been made on the normally green skin, leaving his arms looking as though they had been through a meat blender, blood trickling freely from the may wounds to land on his armor leggings. One elementary fact made the source of the scratches simple to pinpoint. There was blood under Beast Boy's fingernails. He had done it himself.

"Beast Boy, can you hear me?" Brave tried again, and this time, the changeling seemed to snap out of whatever trance he had been in and looked up at her as though he just realized she was there.

"Huh? ...Oh, yeah. Don't worry, I'm fine." he tried to assure his worried companions as he stood. They were far from convinced. Those were hardly scratches one received when playing with small kittens. And _he_ had inflicted them. To himself. Inflicted the deep wounds as though in an attempt to get rid of something, some visage he desired to remove by any means necessary, even if it meant this. ...What had he been shown?

As the green titan turned to look around the room, Brave stood and grabbed his shoulder, preventing him from doing so. Hesitantly, he turned back to face the mage, his face carefully and abnormally blank.

"Give me your arms." she said, her soft voice somehow demanding and not at the same time. Showing the same hesitation as before, Beast Boy did as she asked, extending his arms in front of her and allowing her to assess the damage done. Taking one of his hands, the mage turned his arm over, inspecting the wounds without actually touching them as doing so would likely hurt. After a moment, her brows furrowed as she seemed to realize something. But, the empath let nothing in her posture or behavior, past the barely furrowed brow, reveal what that something was. Did she know or at least have an idea of what the changeling had been shown, what images had caused him to inflict such injuries upon himself? Starfire didn't ask, and she had no intention to in the near future. After all, she didn't much feel like discussing what she had seen either.

A familiar blue aura then surrounded Brave's free hand, and she moved it along the surface of the changeling's arm, the wounds ceasing their bleeding before slowly starting to close. The Tamaranian Princess was well accustomed to the healing aura, just as all the other titans were. Raven had healed many injuries for the team, though the influences of the magic were limited to less severe wounds.

Starfire's thoughts were interrupted when a sudden tingling sensation in the air drew everyone's attention, and they all turned to the center of the room where Timid was still kneeling. Something wasn't right. Even without being able to see the girl's face, the companions could definitely tell that something was off, especially Brave. She _knew_ something was wrong, and she also knew _what_ was wrong. They were the same person, after all. Brave had been feeling the same things as her counterpart for a while now, even if she didn't let the others catch on to it and kept herself in check. Timid wasn't so controlled when it came to keeping a reign on her emotions. And this was one such instance. Brave knew things were about to take a turn for the worse for the group of super teens and the small pseudodragon.

The grief of the whole helpless situation was setting in, and Timid was the most susceptible to its influence.

As if to amplify this idea, the grey-clad emotion then screamed—a helpless and frustrated scream that revealed everything she, and therefore Raven, was feeling—her powers following the suddenly crazed path of their master.

_TT_

_Kate Centered POV:_

Kate snapped up into a seated position when she felt a sudden torrent of magical energy. Alarmed, she jumped to her feet, a split second after Arin had done the same. Turning, they rushed into the cave where the source of the magical burst was coming from. Arin was the first to reach the mage inside, and he placed a hand on her shoulder to see if she was alright. This action, however, proved to be detrimental when a sudden shock of magical energy threw him back with alarming force. Instinctively, Kate moved to catch him, the two skidding a few feet across the floor of the cave before coming to a halt. When they moved to get up, sudden gusts erupted from Raven in a cyclone of whirling energy, forcing them to take shelter behind one of the boulders near the mouth of the cave.

"What's going on!" Kate hollered over the roaring winds to her companion, though his expression showed he didn't know any more than she did. This wasn't good. Gritting her teeth, the brunette peeked over the rock, the gusts forcing her to retreat back down almost immediately. She had managed to get a glimpse of what was happening, though. There were no enemies to attack, and yet Raven was sending out large surges of magical energy as though she couldn't help it. It seemed she had lost control somehow and was now futilely trying to stop the magic that was reacting violently with her apparently troubled emotions. Turning back to Arin, Kate hesitated before asking her next question.

"...Do you think she failed?" she asked, and her friend's eyebrows furrowed in concern at that. They both knew what it would mean if the mage _had_ failed her mission. Containment. They would have to _contain_ the problem in the least world-threatening way possible, but it was not a route either of them wanted to take.

After all, they had no desire to take the life of anyone, especially one of their own.

_TT_

_BB Centered POV:_

A spherical burst of energy suddenly shot from the kneeling mage, throwing the companions backwards to skid across the stone floor The ground around the mage was immediately cracked by the blast of energy that had been released—though the glowing array somehow remained in tact, now seeming as though it were floating over the rubble—and black energy slowly scaled the large pillars that lined the room until they were completely encased. They began to rumble before cracks started snaking their way up the large stone supports. A few of the now shaking floor tiles were lifted, some shattering, and the pieces were thrown in every direction, forcing the companions to take shelter behind one of the large pillars to avoid being impaled by the flying chunks of stone. It soon became apparent, though, that their new shelter was not likely to last very long, as the cracks were spreading farther and farther, cracks that now appeared on the walls of the dome as well.

"What's going on? I thought she would be back to normal now!" Beast Boy yelled over the earsplitting sounds of stone cracking all around them and the thunderous sound of a large part of the wall falling to the ground near where they were hiding, something that kicked copious amounts pf dirt into the air.

"She _is_ back to normal! That's Timid!" Brave yelled back, and her three companions' eyes widened before the loud sound of something very large breaking above them was heard. Gaze snapping to the source of the sound, the changeling saw the top of the pillar they were hiding behind had been broken off, and Timid then hurled across the room with an enraged scream, smashing it into the wall and shattering it, along with a good portion of the wall, violently. Even as the pieces flew, the mage repeated the action with part of another pillar and then another. And another. Clapping her hands together, the mage then struck the ground, unleashing a monumental blast of black energy that blew out a good eighth of the dome wall and ceiling, revealing the clouded sky beyond as they appeared to be in the face of a mountain. It became obvious very quickly that something would have to stop her, or Timid would bring the whole place down!

Beast Boy then carefully peeked around the pillar, watching for more flying rubble, but what he saw gave him pause. Not because of any terrifying visage or action, but for the uncommonness, or even absurdity, of what he was seeing. Timid _was_ back to normal; her now normal skin and attire told him that. Her eyes were completely black as well, but neither of those things were uncommon. It was the tears that seemed so out of character and gave the ever-moving changeling pause. Raven never cried. Not when she was severely hurt, not when she had asked Beast Boy to kill her, not even during a sad movie that brought tears to the unmovable Robin's eyes. Never had the changeling seen her cry. Yet, as she destroyed the room, sending it into ruin with jaw clenched and brow furrowed in fury, tears streamed down her face freely.

Gritting his teeth, the changeling darted from their cover and ran straight for the mage, ignoring the three still behind the pillar as they called out to him in alarm. Another shock wave burst from the angered girl, pushing the changeling back a few yards, nearly knocking him off of his feet and forcing him to shield his eyes. But, he wouldn't give up. As soon as the wave of energy passed, he was moving forwards once more, avoiding the tiles that happened to be thrown his way. He had to reach her. _Someone_ had to stop her. He had no idea what would happen to Raven if one of her emotional centers was destroyed, but he had a feeling that, whatever it was, it wouldn't be good.

He was so focused on getting to Timid, though, that he didn't see one of the chunks of stone flying towards him in time. It slammed into his right shoulder painfully, and he hit the ground, most of his weight landing on his neck. The changeling cried out in pain as he rolled to the side, a hand pressed firmly to the back of his neck, and he took quick breaths, trying to ease the excruciating pain.

He was so close! Only about ten feet to go! Just as he thought that, though, those ten feet became much more difficult to cross as a cyclone of energy seemed to emerge, whirling around the weeping girl. Thinking quickly as the strong gusts started to blow him backwards, Beast Boy removed a throwing knife from his belt and stabbed the ground, effectively halting his backward motion as the blade dug deep into the stone. Hah! This would work! Removing a second knife, the changeling reached forward and stabbed it into the ground as well. He then slowly pulled himself forward, the action much more difficult than it would have been given the waves of energy hitting him, removed the first knife and dug it into the ground a few feet in front of him. It may have been slower than running, but it was the only thing he could do. He couldn't let Timid destroy this place!

At an agonizingly slow pace, the changeling closed the gap between himself and the mage, who was too distracted with destroying the dome with her pillar projectiles to notice him. Waiting for his chance, Beast Boy braced himself against the floor, ready to spring up at a moment's notice. His chance came when Timid launched another pillar segment at the dome walls, the action leaving a decrease in the magical cyclone around her. Springing into action, the green titan lept up, cleared the remaining distance between them, and wrapped his arms around the girl from behind, pining her arms to her sides. She roared as she tried to break free, but Beast Boy wasn't letting go; he may not know what destroying this place would do, but he didn't want to take the chance that something terrible would happen to Raven, even if this was technically self inflicted.

"_No_! Let me go! If I destroy my mind, she wont be able to use it anymore!" the usually diffident counterpart screamed, her tone furious and helpless as the tears continued to fall with no signs of ceasing. Beast Boy's ears drooped upon hearing this, but he refused to let her go, even when she screamed in rage once more and another wave of energy shot out from her. He knew she wouldn't actually hurt one of her friends; Raven would never do that on purpose. The changeling was proven correct when the ground around them was again cracked, the tiles now looking more like gravel, but he remained unharmed. The mage continued to scream, still struggling to be free for a few moments before she started to calm and became slightly limp in his grasp. Beast Boy then realized she was collapsing, and, shocked at the suddenness of it, he just let her.

She loosed a final helpless cry of fury as she slammed both fists onto the ground. This time, though, no magic was released, and the screams quickly turned to anguished sobs. Her arms moved to shield her head as she fell backwards into a seated position and buried her face into her knees. Beast Boy felt a lump grow in his throat as he watcher her, and he had to bite his lip to stop it from quivering at the pain he could both plainly hear and see. _No one_ should ever feel the way she was, particularly someone like her who only desired to help people. _Especially_ her, who had already been through enough in her still short life. Without saying a word, not knowing what to say, the changeling knelt down beside her and gently placed a hand on the quaking mage's back. When she didn't draw away from his touch, he hesitated before pulling her into a hug. Again she didn't back away, and she even shifted to now bury her face in his chest, her hands clasping his armor tightly.

"Why does this keep happening to me? Why is it my friends who always end up paying? ...I don't _mean_ for these things to happen, but..." the grey-clad emotion pleaded helplessly, clinging to Beast Boy as though her life depended on it. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Its all my fault!" she cried as the tears continued to flow. It broke Beast Boy's heart to see her like that, but he didn't even know how to react; he had never seen her break down like this, not even Timid when he had met her before. Raven should never feel like this, but the changeling knew that Raven herself shared the weeping girl's sentiments. After all, Timid was a part of her.

"If I didn't exist, none of this would be happening!" Timid continued, and something in Beast Boy snapped at that, the nonsensical comment seeming to reboot his brain into cognizance.

"That's not true! Don't say that!" She seemed surprised by his sudden outburst and hesitated before looking up at him. "If it's one thing I've learned from you over the years, it's that, even if things were different, this demon would just think of something else. You're _not_ to blame for anything." he said seriously, surprised that she could be thinking such things as the demon's actions being _her_ fault. His tone then softened slightly as he continued. "Never be ashamed for existing 'cause life's an awesome thing, and everyone should get a shot at it." Timid simply stared at him, her tears slowing substantially, and Beast Boy's ears drooped slightly once again at the solemn pain he still saw in her violet eyes.

"You're one of the best and strongest people I know." He continued earnestly.

"But... H-how do you know that? Even though we defeated my father, and even _if_ we manage to defeat Naðra, _I'm_ still half demon! What if I can't-" Her question ceased before completion when Beast Boy put two fingers to her lips, ears still drooped.

"Don't even _think_ that." he said quietly yet sternly. "You _are_ one of the best people I know. We don't know what happened to you before we met you, but we don't need to. We don't have to _know_ what happened to know it wasn't good. You could have easily given in to what your father wanted, but you didn't. You actually fought to protect what he was trying to destroy."

"I've always thought it's not who you are or even what you do that makes someone good or bad. It's always the 'why'." Timid only sat quietly, taking in everything Beast Boy was saying as there roles in this instant almost seemed reversed: he the teacher and her the student.

"So, ask yourself. Why'd you fight Trigon instead of join him?" The green titan asked curiously, though his expression showed he already knew, or had a idea of, what her reply would be.

"...He has no right to do the things he does. I couldn't just let him murder thousands of people without trying to do something about it." Timid answered earnestly, and the changeling grinned widely in response.

"See, you're not bad. Right, Star?" he asked looking at the Tamaranian girl who, along with the other two companions in the group, had approached sometime after Timid started to calm down. Starfire smiled kindly and nodded, and Beast Boy grinned wider, if that was even possible before turning back to Timid. "And I know two other dudes who would say the same thing if we asked 'em! ...And, if it's not too selfish to say, knowing you is worth all this." the changeling admitted earnestly, and both Timid's and Brave's eyes widened a little in shock, mirroring Raven's sentiments. After all, this wasn't a _small_ amount of trouble they were going through, here!

The lightened mood was shattered when an echoed bout of sardonic, malevolent laughter suddenly sounded throughout the room, and everyone's heads snapped up, all trying to find the source. This couldn't be good. Brave and Timid were the first to locate the source based on the fact that they shared a personal bond with the intruder, and Beast Boy was next to noticed due to his enhanced hearing. Following their gazes, Starfire and Zippy turned as well to see a cloaked figure leaning casually against the far wall of the room. The glowing, purple symbols that adorned the cloak, along with the sharp teeth revealed from under the cloak's cowl proved the intruder to be one of Raven's tainted emotions. Lust, the twisted version of Affection.

_TT_

_Raven Centered POV:_

The mage gasped as she fell forward, landing heavily on her forearms. Rock. She was looking at the floor of the cave, and that meant she was no longer in her mind! A hand touching her shoulder alerted the mage that she was not alone, but she knew she wasn't in danger either.

"Is everything alright?" It was Arin who spoke, the first time she had heard him do so since the trackers' arrival. Turning her head in his direction, Raven noted both he and Kate were looking at her expectantly, worry evident in both their eyes.

"Y-yes." the mage replied, her fatigue just as evident in her tone. "But, we n-need to move now." she added, to which both nodded in understanding. She had released a large amount of magical energy just now, and none of them had any doubts that the enemy would now know where they were. Kneeling in front of her, Arin lifted the mage piggy-back style. Normally Raven would have protested, but she could hardly speak, let alone stand or run. She had no choice but to allow herself to be carried. With unnatural ease when carrying another person, the combat specialist then quickly followed Kate to the mouth of the cave as the brunette picked up both hers and Arin's packs, and the trio were off immediately, sprinting across the beach.

Knowing there was nothing else she could do here but trust the two who were now escorting her from place to place, Raven once again focused inward, and, within a few seconds, had reentered her mindscape.

_TT_

_BB Centered POV:_

Starfire, Zippy, and Brave immediately leapt into action, the former two charging a large starbolt and fireball respectively as they lunged forward and the latter lifting large chunks of rubble with her dark magic, prepared to launch them at their new arrival.

"Ah ah ah." Lust said as though berating children on poor manners as she raised her hands, and all three were then completely encased in the same black magic, halting their attacks instantly and leaving the rubble to crash back to the floor. Beast Boy quickly got to his his feet and took a defensive stance as Timid hid behind him. Lust noted this with overt amusement.

"You want to be a hero, do you?" the tainted emotion asked with an evil chuckle, and the changeling growled protectively, baring his teeth at the possessed mage in a feral manner as the gray-clad emotion behind him clung to him in fear and uncertainty. The green titan knew this was _very_ bad, though. The group was exhausted. They didn't have the strength, even collectively, for another major battle, and yet it looked like one was about to start anyway.

"What are you doing here? This is Timid's realm!" Beast Boy demanded angrily, deciding it was better to try and bluff anyway. This comment only brought another amused laugh from the girl, though.

"I grew impatient with the wait and came to find you instead." Lust replied simply, though no one in the room believed this. Being exhausted as they were, this was the perfect time for the enemy to attack the group, and they seemed to be taking advantage of the opportunity. The companions had to think of something fast, or this would probably be the shortest lived encounter ever.

When Lust appeared suddenly in front of the changeling, drawing him from his frantic thoughts, his instincts reacted far faster then his brain, and he raised his swords to attack. This move was in vain, however, when the mage simply raised a hand and then thrust it to the side, and Beast Boy followed its motion, now flying across the room. The landing caused the still healing scratches on his arms to scrape agonizingly across the stone floor, and he cried out in pain. As he rolled to a stop, Timid slowly and fearfully backed away from Affection's tainted form, who was observing the blood smears on the tiles, left by the green titan's many reopened wounds, with grotesque amusement.

Shakily, Beast Boy lifted himself off the floor, gritting his teeth at the jarring pain the action sent through his arms. The instant he got to his feet, though, he found his body would no longer respond to the commands he gave it. He was frozen in place by the same black energy that held Starfire, Brave, and Zippy, though he could still move his head for some reason.

"What do you all say about going elsewhere, where your pesky powers won't be a problem?" Lust then asked, though she clearly wasn't looking for an answer. She clapped her hands, and a black sphere of magic surrounded everyone for a moment, all inside feeling the telltale sensation of being transported by Raven's 'soul self'. When the darkness cleared, they stood in a dome almost identical to the last, only without the array in the center and with walls that hadn't been blown down—the pillars here also bore several ornamental spikes around them, a set near the bottom, middle, and top of each. This must be Lust's domain. The changeling was thankful she had saved them the trouble of going through another temple, but none of the companions could move, and, even if they could, there was still the ever present issue of fatigue.

"That's better, don't you agree?" Lust asked in the same manner as before, receiving glares from everyone in the room. She wasn't at all bothered. "I must admit, it's been so frustrating having to wait for so long." she then mock pouted before appearing right next to Beast Boy. "Don't you know better than to keep a girl waiting?" she whispered into his ear seductively, and the changeling's face immediately started to heat up, not noticing the way both Brave's and Timid's did the same for very different reasons. Lust noticed, though, and she turned her attention to the two of them.

"You had your chance." she said simply. Though this comment confused the changeling, it did not confuse the two mages, particularly Brave for whom the comment conjured images of a particular kiss that had occurred only a little while previous. Anger sparked, however, when the possessed mage moved to stand behind the changeling, draping her arms over his shoulders to whisper into his ear.

"Tell me, is it the mage you truly appreciate, or is it this _body_ of hers?" she asked as she held herself close to him, said body pressing into his back as her slender fingers traced hypnotically over his collarbone. Beast Boy shut his eyes tight, trying to ignore the primal reaction her actions threatened to ignite in him.

"What's the matter? Those pesky primal urges aren't getting the better of you, are they?" Lust asked in mock innocence as she hung her head over his shoulder to look at his face, clearly only trying to incite said urges further as her fingers then moved to lightly trace up and down the green titan's neck. The changeling's jaw tightened even more as he turned his face away from hers, forcing his mind to remain calm as his skin tingled wherever her fingers touched. He wouldn't let the Beast take over!

A sudden scream of rage prompted the changeling's eyes to snap open just in time to witness the tainted mage quickly side-step to avoid a furious downward stab from Brave and then again as there was little pause before a ferocious horizontal slash. The green-clad mage then stood between a gaping Beast Boy and a smirking Lust, wrist blades raised in a ready stance and a dangerous, pain-promising glint in her eyes. Timid was next to her then as even she glared darkly at Lust. How had they broken free? The changeling didn't have time to ask before the two sprung into action once more... using magic! They must have done what Brave and Raven did before! Man, the other three _really_ needed to learn how to do that!—though they were currently still stuck in place, as it was.

As Brave charged forward with two clones, Timid stood back, launching small, sharp tile pieces at their adversary in rapid succession, the result a virtual magic minigun. Lust, with apparent effortlessness, avoided the stone bullets until the barrage was let up as Brave closed in. Flipping backwards to avoid Brave's forward lunge, the tainted mage then crossed her arms in front of her head, blocking the kick of a clone who had teleported into the air in an attempted sneak attack. Twisting in midair, it was then Lust who delivered a powerful kick to the clone's jaw, sending the green-clad mage flying. The purple-clad mage chuckled malevolently as her real green-clad counterpart immediately rushed forward with an enraged cry, predictably rushing in recklessly in her fury. The possessed girl was surprised, however, when the mage suddenly vanished, revealing Timid a few yards away, hands raised as though to spike a volleyball. When the diffident emotion struck the ground, a monumental blast of energy, identical to the one used against the dome in her own center, shot towards Lust. Alarmed, the tainted mage strafed to the side, forced to put up a protective barrier when this action wasn't enough to avoid the sudden burst attack, and she was propelled backwards with a cry of pain.

Beast Boy was then surprised when he felt his body was responding to his actions once more, and he turned to see the same thing had happened to Starfire and Zippy. They had all been released! Wasting no time in wondering how, the companions hurried forward when they noticed Timid fall to her knees as Brave continued her assault on Lust, Zippy flying to help.

"Are you alright?" Starfire asked worriedly as she steadied the grey-clad mage who was too busy taking in deep breaths to answer right away. When she did speak, Timid's strained voice was barely above a whisper.

"I'm s-sorry... T-too... tired." was all she managed before going limp, rendered unconscious from using too much energy. Starfire and Beast Boy didn't have time to worry over this when the telltale sounds of intense combat drew their attention back to the fight.

A well placed, football sized stone, launched by Lust using her back magic, hit one of the Braves in the gut, the force of the blow dispelling the now evident clone into a black cloud of smoke. The remaining two Braves closed in anyway and attacked as Zippy launched a distracting fireball at the possessed mage. This did little good, however, as Lust simply deflected the ball of flame with a shielded backhand and then twisted to avoid both assaults by the mages' part. As one of the Braves passed her, though, Lust placed her hand to the untainted counterpart's head. Brave screamed as black sparks shot through her, the other green-clad mage dispelling in a puff of black smoke as Lust had apparently found the real one. The real and now only remaining Brave was about to collapse when the purple-clad emotion spun rapidly, a cyclone of black energy swirling to life around her. The blast shot both Brave and Zippy away from her, the intense impact sending them crashing into the outer walls of the dome while Starfire and Beast Boy were also thrown back. The changeling landed heavily on his back near the walls of the dome, the air in his lungs flooding out and the gust's motion then rolling him onto his stomach. His vision dimmed a little as he suddenly felt very light-headed., but he couldn't let himself pass out, not now!

It was like something out of a movie. Things seemed to move in slow motion as Beast Boy struggled to lift himself on his once again bleeding arms, attempting to see through the dirt that clouded his vision. Finally, when it dirt around him did clear enough for him to see, the changeling was left speechless, a gut-wrenching feeling in his stomach. Brave's now unmoving frame was visible sitting in a crater in the wall. Her hood had fallen off, revealing several strands of hair had fallen loose from their bindings, and thick trails of blood now ran down her face from an injury somewhere currently unnoticeable on her head. The group's only real hope of defeating Lust was now unconscious—or worse, the green teen's brain sickeningly added. And she wasn't the only one seriously hurt. Zippy had crashed into the wall on the opposite side of the room as Brave and now lay terrifyingly limp on the stone floor, and Starfire had hit one of the stone pillars... and one of the spikes that adorned the pillars here had pierced her side where only movement giving cloth was present. When the alien princess fell to the floor in a pained heap, a hand pressed tightly to the injury, Beast Boy wanted to run to her, but he knew there was nothing he could do to help her. He didn't have any healing powers, and there was no time to wrap the wound at all, let alone properly. And, even if he could, their situation seemed pretty pointless anyway.

Beast Boy had always viewed movie scenes like this hilariously exaggerated and overly dramatic, those who remained after a devastating attack feeling utterly useless as they looked helplessly at their fallen comrades. The changeling always knew that those movies had happy endings, though, so he had always thought the characters who could should just get up and finish the fight 'cause their friends would always be fine afterward.

...But now... When _he_ was the one in their shoes, it didn't seem very exaggerated at all. There was no guaranteed positive outcome here. They could all die, and that would be the end of it. Naðra would succeed, take over the world or whatever it was she wanted to do. There would be no more Titans, no pizza on Friday nights, no arguing with Cyborg over their greatly varying choices in diet... Nothing. And not just for him, either. What about Starfire and Zippy? They would die too. What about Starfire's dreams—he knew she had a countless amount given how enthusiastic she was about everything. All of that would vanish, and he knew the world would surely be worse off without her irrefutably positive attitude. Then Zippy. Beast Boy wasn't sure how these things worked, him being part of Raven's mind and everything, but he deserved a chance at having a life too. A glance back at Brave's still form then brought forth a new fear in Beast Boy.

What if he never got to ask Raven out on a date, never got to tell her how he felt or learn more about her? What if he took everything he had been holding inside him to the grave? Sure, he knew she was likely aware of what he was feeling, especially after everything that happened recently, but what if she never actually got to hear it from him? Beast Boy didn't know why, but this thought scared him far more than the thought of the Beast taking over ever had.

When he looked back up, time seemed to return to its usual motion, his gaze falling on a Lust who looked none the bothered after everything she had done in the few short minutes since she had invaded Timid's Center. Were he looking at himself from an outsider's point of view, Beast Boy would have seen his pupils constrict, brow furrow and lips curl upward in an enraged, feral snarl.

Though she wore the countenance like a perfectly tailored suit, she definitely wasn't Raven. _She_ was the one doing this to Raven! _She_ was the one doing _all_ of this! And _she_ was the one his primal instincts were directing his unconditional fury at—and the changeling couldn't help but agree! If it weren't for her and her self absorbed plan, the Titans would all still be sitting in the tower or beating the latest baddie who thought they could get away with robbing a Jump City bank or jewelry store. But, _her_ 'take over the world' scheme had resulted in the almost sure demise of three of said Titans, the rest sure to follow should the group fail here and Naðra had her way! She. Would. Pay! If it was the last thing he did, Beast Boy would make this demon pay!

Driven by all of the thoughts swirling through his mind in a figurative tornado, in a rash move even the possessed mage hadn't anticipated, the changeling charged forward with an enraged battle cry, picking up one of his fallen shamshirs as he went. He ran straight for Lust, a dangerous, savage glint in his normally docile eyes. She reacted just in time to avoid a ferocious slash, and was then forced to continue to dodge the rapid succession of follow up attacks, attacks that matched his previous assault speed even though he only had one blade in hand now. Beast Boy no longer cared how tired he was, didn't care that his attempts were likely to be futile once his rage powered adrenalin faded. He just wanted this demon gone! In such a short amount of time, she had managed to threaten everything the group had worked to protect, to fatally wound three of his closest friends, and he could _not_ let her get away with it! He would finish this, or he would die trying!

Lust, initially surprised by Beast Boy's sudden outburst of fury, was soon falling into a rhythm of deflection and evasion, using simple bursts of magic when necessary to jump higher or deflect blows that were a little too close for comfort. Because, for all his attempts, fueled by adrenalin granted to him by his anger, the changeling was exhausted both mentally and physically. It wouldn't be too much longer before he tired out and got sloppy, and that would be her chance to strike.

There were only two witnesses to the changeling's uncharacteristic fury. A barely conscious and immobile Starfire was one, though her fogged, dizzied mind was having difficulty focusing on anything. The other was Raven herself, now back in contact with her mind after her outburst. She watched the fight, a sinking feeling in her chest. This could not end well, and she knew it. Beast Boy was already starting to slow down, his opponent showing almost no signs of fatigue at all.

When Lust appeared to stumble then, knocked off balance by blocking one of his blows, the changeling's eyes widened a fraction in surprise before he lunged, aiming for the girl's shoulder. He noticed his mistake too late. She could fly; the stumble had only been a feint. Standing at an angle no one without the ability of levitation would be capable of, the tainted mage deflected the green titan's lunge with ease, and, the next thing he knew, her hand was against his forehead. He screamed when he felt the most excruciating pain he had ever felt. It was almost as though his entire nervous system were being stabbed and slit by a countless number of knives and needles. Lust then palmed his chest, silencing him as the force of the blow pushed the air from his lings. With unnatural speed, Beast Boy was thrown backwards, striking the floor with such force that the stone beneath him cracked, and he was sure his arm had done the same.

His vision went black. He wasn't sure for how long it stayed that way, but, in the brief moments when his sight returned to him, the changeling was barely able to discern that Lust was now standing before Starfire, who had begun to struggle to lift herself. In the next brief clip of barely conscious cognition, he saw the alien warrior collapse in fatigue, the tainted mage who stood over her simply smirking in wicked amusement, fangs revealed as if to emphasize the demon she was.

Time seemed to stop again for what felt like the thousandth time in less than an hour, freezing the image in front of him, before a sudden surge of energy shot through Beast Boy, returning his vision and cognition to their fullest once again. Though, with this came the consciousness over the pain he was currently in, and the changeling was quick enough to muffle his pained intake of breath in his shoulder in time for the possessed mage to take no notice. _He_ noticed, however, that the pain was less than it should have been given his injuries; maybe he was just too tired to feel most of it.

"Beast Boy, I know how much you're hurting, but you have to stop her now!" came Raven's panicked voice in his head, and the changeling's curiosity over his sudden first aid was answered; she must have used a burst of allowed magic to heal him enough for him to move again. This allowed movement let him to look back up in time to see Lust raise her hand to Starfire's crumpled form and then raise it higher, the girl's body rising with the motion.

"You have to kill her _now_!" Raven then shouted in his mind, and Beast Boy's stomach clenched in revulsion. He had heard what she had said, even knew that what she was telling him to do was their only option, but... Now that his rage had faded, when he looked at Lust—who was now walking over to the green titan's discarded weapon, Starfire now floating in the air with her head lolled forward—he somewhat at least _saw_ Raven. Not to mention Affection actually _was_ Raven. If he killed her, ...it would almost be like killing...

"Beast Boy, there's no other choice!" Raven continued as the changeling watched Lust pick up his blade from where he had dropped it. "Affection will come back once the realm is restored, but _Starfire_ is an actual person! She _won't_ come back!" His eyes widened upon hearing this before he cast his eyes down, jaw and fist clenching. As Lust approached Starfire's floating form once more, the changeling reached behind himself with his one good arm, his hand closing around the hilt of one of his knives. Hand shaking, he removed the blade from its sheath before silently raising himself to his knees.

The two raised both of their weapons at the same time, but, as Beast Boy let loose his, Lust had stopped to smirk evilly at her helpless victim. The changeling's knife sailed through the air, covering the distance between them quickly, almost as though all the time spent frozen had come back in reverse, making this moment pass before he could truly contemplate its repercussions. One instant, the blade was spiraling through the air, and the next... it had penetrated the mage's back, a sickening crunch seeming to echo as it cut through the bone between her shoulder blades. Lust's face frozen in one of complete shock, she fell to the floor in a heap, Starfire's now unsupported from doing the same.

Beast Boy sat frozen where he was, eyes refusing to leave the possessed empath's unmoving frame as blood slowly began to pool around her from the knife in her back, her face still frozen as it had been the moment life left her body.

The next few minutes were a blur to his hazed mind as he went about sketching the array on the floor in an almost... possessed looking manner, his expression strangely blank. Nothing registered to him, not his growing fatigue, not the pain in his arm or the scratches that covered both, not even the ample sized lump in his throat or the excruciating trouble he was having in breathing. All he was trying to do was complete the task they had come to do, all the while attempting with no success to ignore the still form of Lust whose back still bore his knife.

He didn't know how long it took to complete the array, but, when it was finally finished, it activated, flooding the entire room in a blinding, white light. When the light faded, a figure was floating down over the center only a few feet in front of him. Her feet touched down, and she, whether from fatigue or from shock, fell to her knees. Affection, now back to normal once more looked at her hands in apparent disbelief, but this did not come close to the shock she felt when Beast Boy suddenly collapsed onto his knees in front of her and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the mage's shoulder. Alarmed as she was, all thoughts of hesitance flew from her when the changeling began to shake. It took her a moment to realize that he was crying silently, and this realization brought a tightening to her chest before she returned his embrace, wrapping her arm around the green titan's quaking form.

The pressure of everything was starting to take its toll on not only Raven, but everyone involved.

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_I hope you all liked the chapter, and thanks to anyone who's reading this story :) Please review, I love everyone's input!_


	16. Misfortunes

_Sorry for the late update. My second Calc 3 test snuck up on me(it's tomorrow! *&%!) Anyways, this portion of the story is actually getting closer to the end now. I anticipate maybe five more chapters after this one._

_Disclaimer: Still don't own the Teen Titans._

_To Olivia xx: Thanks, always nice to hear that :D Hope you like how this one ends, though I'm not sure because this is one of those sequel set-ups. Their problems won't end until the end of the next story._

_To BlackLabyrinth07: Thank you. Quite a bit happens in this chapter, actually. I really am trying to update as soon as I can, it's just this darn writer's block! All I keep wanting to focus on is the end of this portion of the story, so writing the stuff before then is hard. :p_

_To Taeniaea: Lol. I suppose Affection was herself under the circumstances :) And, indeed poor Beast Boy. Sometimes it sucks what has to be done to move forward the character depth/ interactions. Thanks for reviewing!_

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_Starfire Centered POV:_

Brave held out her hand to them, signaling for them to stop, and the companions complied, standing with their backs to the building. They remained silent, waiting for a word from their guide who was watching the street ahead as three armed lizard-men looking through the area for anything suspicious.

"Another patrol. We'll have to go around." she supplied in a hushed whisper, ushering the group back the way they came, so they could move down the adjacent street. They had been traveling for a few hours, though it had felt much longer in Starfire's opinion. Perhaps it was due to the fact that it felt as though they were forced to hide from a patrol every five minutes and then double back to avoid detection. At least it had been expected, as the situation had been explained to them already.

Things would have been far worse had they been ambushed out of ignorance.

_Flashback:_

_ "I won't lie." Affection, seated over the glowing array, bleakly told the guests in Raven's mind. "Things are worse. ...A lot worse than when you first entered these mental realms to help." The companions' reactions varied from member to member upon hearing this. Starfire knew she looked openly worried, as she was never prone to hiding her emotions. Zippy whimpered lightly, apprehensive as to what the purple-clad mage could mean, while Brave and Timid didn't look surprised in the slightest—this probably wasn't new information to them, though. Beast Boy, however, unnaturally distant since the previous fight, sat silently, his expression the same grim one it had been before. Starfire had been unsettled by this at first, but now she was truly concerned over this fact. Why was the changeling acting so different than was normal for him?_

_ The alien princess had a feeling that whatever it was had to do with the end of the previous fight... but she couldn't for all the mustard and Borka berries in the world remember what had happened after being impaled by one of the pillar spikes. It seemed, though, that Affection, likely part of the cause of his silence, knew what was wrong because she respectfully kept her distance from him, allowing the changeling the time he seemed to need to sort out whatever was troubling him. That didn't stop her from casting him the occasional concerned glance. ...What had happened? Starfire was beginning to drive herself insane as she tried to remember!_

_ The Tamaranean's inner worries and observations were cut short, preventing her from giving herself a brain aneurism out of trying to remember something that simply would not come, when Affection continued to explain the current situation._

_ "You've been releasing the outer realms so far, those belonging to the emotions who are not immediate threats. However, while the outer realms are being freed, the true Center is falling deeper and deeper into Naðra's taint. Releasing the outer realms does no good if the true Center falls, but, in order to get there, the outer realms must first be freed." she stated, revealing to them the virtual chicken-egg scenario they were in. "That being said, there is one more realm for you to free before the real problem can be addressed." the purple-clad emotion explained, almost immediately being met with confusion on Starfire's part._

_ "I was under the impression there would be three realms still under the demon's control. As there are three emotions yet to be freed." was her questioning statement, but Affection shook her head in response._

_ "There are three." It was Brave who spoke, drawing the group's attention. "But Wisdom and Knowledge bunk together, and Anger's too dangerous to be left alone. She's kept in the true Center, where she can be watched more closely and held on a shorter leash."_

_ After a moment to actually process this information, Starfire nodded, this account making at least some sense to her. It was true that wisdom and knowledge were closely related, so it seemed logical that the embodiments of these two aspects would reside close together. And, given the nature of Raven's powers, it also seemed logical that she would want to keep a better watch on her anger—though, honestly the idea of emotions having their own embodiments was still a little strange for the Tamaranean to grasp, and she was finding the concept a little bit 'out there' as Cyborg and Beast Boy would say._

_ She briefly wondered if everyone had these sort of beings inside of them, and, if so, what hers would be like. She quickly pushed this though aside, however, as she reminded herself that they were still on a very important mission._

_ "But," Affection then continued in a dour tone, even the oddly reclusive Beast Boy looking slightly concerned at this. "Getting to Wisdom and Knowledge will be much more complicated than the rest of this journey has been. We are safe in here, but, outside of this center, allies of Naðra have begun to fill the realms. Her followers, the Ophythians which you have already had the misfortune of meeting, are patrolling in search for you. And, despite what Brave may prefer," (the Rambo-emotion steamed at being referred to like this) "attempting to bulldoze through these enemies would be a suicide mission. There are too many of them, so it would be best to avoid any confrontations if possible. As a last-effort defense protocol, it will appear as though night has fallen everywhere, making this effort easier than it would be otherwise."_

_End Flashback:_

And so, they had moved out, continuing on their mission as they appeared to be nearing the end. They had managed to sneak out of Affection's temple, only to realize this particular realm looked like Jump City, Titan's Tower visible on it's little island overlooking the metropolis. Upon entering the area, Brave had briefly explained that Jump City was more of a home to her than Azaranth had ever been, denoting why Affection's realm resembled it.

So, now, they were making their way through the city, _their_ city, as silently and swiftly as they could manage. For the briefest moment, Starfire wondered if they would find the Titans were they to visit the tower. If the city was Raven's home, did that make them family? Would they be here too? Though, the instant she thought of Robin, she quickly forced the thoughts from her mind. She would only miss him that much more if she did and would only be distracted from what the group was currently doing.

_TT_

_Arin Centered POV:_

They were being followed. Even he could sense their pursuers closing in now, so he knew Kate had for some time. They hadn't stopped moving since Raven nearly lost control, but it was now apparent that they weren't making good enough progress. Whatever it was that was chasing them was faster than they. Sharing a glance with the brunette running beside him, they both nodded briefly; they knew they would not outrun this foe, and running further would only result in tiring them more, making the fight they also knew to be coming all the more challenging.

Stopping in a portion of the beach littered with jagged rocks, Arin set Raven, currently in some sort of meditative trance, down so she was leaning against one of the rock as Kate removed the weapons from the sheath at her waist. It was a three-sectioned staff called a Sanjiegun, each staff about the same length as her arm and connected to one another by chains. One of her hands held the center pole while the other held one of the outer poles, and she lightly began swaying her arms, moving the weapon in an agile fashion. One might normally think it a strange weapon to favor, but it complimented her unique fighting style.

Standing in ready positions, the two comrades waited for their enemies to rear their heads. Now that they weren't moving, it was easier for Arin to get a reading on what was following them. Ten or so enemies, close in size to a human, maybe a little larger, moving swiftly along the upper ridge the two energy manipulators had been running along down below.

"Humanoid?" he asked Kate, who was the superior in sensing the energies of things around them. After a brief pause, she nodded in affirmation, eyes glancing around a little as though trying to decipher something.

"I believe so." she stated quietly, shifting her weight back and forth lightly and rolling her shoulders a little, loosening her joints for the coming confrontation. Suddenly, the energy signatures up on top of the ridge split up, half moving left and half moving right.

"A flanking maneuver!" Arin started, this fact alarming them both, as this meant their enemy was disciplined in combat. It also proved that whoever it was, they were not allies. Arin's battle stance shifted into a defensive one as he and Kate now stood facing opposite directions, and he watched as four dark figures shot from the trees above him, sensing as five others did the same on the other side. They all landed heavily in the sand, seemingly unscathed from the thirty foot drop, and, even in the low lighting the moon and stars provided, it was clear that these things weren't human. Long snouts, clawed hands and feet, legs resembling a bird's in basic shape, scales. They looked like some sort of reptilian humanoid. What was odd, however, was that they carried what looked like medieval armaments. They wore metal armor and carried an assortment of weaponry from swords to spears to battle axes.

"Give us the mage!" one of them on Kate's side, one carrying an impressive looking ax, said in a grating sort of voice. Arin and Kate both closed ranks a little, now closer to said mage.

"No." the brunette responded plainly, beginning to spin the loose pole on the end, and Arin could hear the slight humming as she charged it. He was also quite sure this current situation was inwardly eating her alive, even if her voice had sounded unwavering.

"Very well. We'll just kill you first!" the same lizard-man, probably the leader, replied with a raspy, amused laugh before he charged forward, ax raised over his head, and attacked.

_TT_

_Brave to BB Centered POV:_

They were making better progress now. The companions had silently and uneventfully entered Knowledge and Wisdom's shared domain some time ago and were now making their way through the rocky, forest-covered mountains that surrounded the temple that housed the final sub-center. The trees provided much more cover than the buildings and empty streets of Jump City had, hence their improved speed.

The temple they were heading to, its silhouette visible far in the distance only due to the starry sky that surrounded it, was the largest of all of them, resembling large ruins from a structure that had been built on the face of a cliff. It's architecture, she knew, resembled that found on Azarath, the large, gold seal present on the tallest tower resembling a bird raising its wings to the heavens. Despite how large the structure was, however, the only entrance to the temple rested at its base. Once inside, the companions would have to make it all the way to the top to the large glass dome of the Center, glass that was magically protected to be unbreakable from the outside.

Turning her attention back to the matter at hand, Brave realized the companions' journey had currently led them to a small cliff. An Ophythian patrol currently camped at its base, its members conversing quietly, and more patrols likely moved about the surrounding area. The safest place to land, a large rock that almost cut the drop in half, was only about a dozen meters from where the camp was set up, but it would take far too long to search for a safer way down. The infection was spreading too quickly to allow for any more detours; they had already been forced to take too many back in the city. They had no choice but to risk it.

Crouching at the edge, the green-hooded mage gauged the distance to the rock bellow and took in a silent breath before jumping. She landed skillfully exactly where she had intended, making a minimal amount of noise as her feet once again found solid ground; the Ophythian patrol didn't seem to notice, though, as they continued to chat in their native tongue.

Once she was sure she had remained undetected, the mage motioned back up to Starfire, Beast Boy, and Zippy for them to follow, the three nodding mutely in response. Beast Boy whispered something to Zippy, and the little winged lizard flew down, landing on Brave's shoulder as she moved to the side to make room for the other two companions. The green Titan then repeated the same process the green-hooded mage had just followed, landing almost silently next to her. The two crouched down low, just in case, but the patrol hadn't noticed him either.

Things were going well. The companions would be able to jump down the side of the rock that was hidden from the patrol and would then be able to sneak into the forest and continue on their way. As Starfire was about to jump, though, the rock beneath her feet gave way. While she was still able to land on the rock bellow unharmed, the loosened rocks tumbled noisily down the incline, and the companions' attention immediately went to the camping scout party. All three scouts, previously chatting, were looking in their direction.

The group had been discovered.

"Kill them!" Brave ordered urgently as she leapt off of the rock and charged forward, Starfire and Zippy following right behind her. Beast Boy hesitated, his fists tightening, before shaking his head. His eyes hardened slightly as he tried to force himself to become indifferent to the order, and he then impelling himself to hurry after his comrades.

Hunching low, it was the Tamaranean Princess who made the first move, jumping high into the air and practically disappearing into the night sky. The only thing truly visible of her as she flew was the gleam of the campfire light off of her sword as it was nearing their enemies. The three Ophythians frantically removed their weapons and stood, but not before Starfire landed, cleaving one of them in two.

Seeming as though he couldn't care less for his fallen comrade, one of the lizard men attacked before the emerald-eyed alien could react, such thoughtless indifference unanticipated on her part. The sword slashed the red-haired Titan across the midriff, and, there being no armor or protective padding there, the blade cut right through the cloth of her shirt. Starfire stifled her own pained scream through gritted teeth when a deep gash was slit across her stomach. She fell back, dropping her weapon as she was forced to hold the large, bleeding wound.

As the lizard man stood over the alien princess, sword raised for a finishing blow, Brave suddenly slid in behind him, slashing the backs of his knees—the knee being the first joint below his hip(1)—with one of her wrist blades as she went. Quickly standing as his legs gave out beneath him, she pinned the scout's head to his chest to stop him from crying out and drove her wrist blade through his back, piercing his heart. The resistance she felt from his pinned head vanished almost instantly, and she pushed him to the side to fall in a limp heap on the ground.

The third Ophythian, clearly greatly outnumbered now, turned and fled, intending on alerting another nearby scouting party to the group's presence.

"Beast Boy, stop him!" Brave ordered as she knelt beside their wounded friend. The changeling didn't pause before running after the retreating scout, Zippy flying ahead of him to help. Turning her attention to the bleeding Tamaranean, the green-hooded mage assessed that things were quite bad. Starfire was loosing blood far faster than she should have. Cursing under her breath, Brave realized the weapon must have had some kind of poison on it that thinned the blood in the area it struck, making clotting more difficult. Starfire's alien heritage provided her with healing that was faster than that of a human's, but that healing would do no good if she lost all of her blood before it could start to take effect! Frantically, and with nothing else to use, the mage removed her hood and lifted Starfire's hands to cover the wound with the green material.

Meanwhile, Zippy quickly closed in on the retreating scout, launching a fireball that hit the back of his head. Nearly falling over from the force of the blow, the now angered lizard man removed the large repeating crossbow from his back. The Ophythian leveled the weapon on the little non-dragon, firing bolt after bolt as Zippy quickly sped away to avoid being impaled by the bolts that were almost spear-sized to him.

The barrage was cut short when Beast Boy barreled into the lizard man from behind, sending him face first into the dirt. He quickly rolled into a kneeling position as the changeling regained his balance, and the crossbow was then leveled on the green Titan. The changeling strafed to the side just in time to avoid the bolt that was fired, though it did cut the chest of his armor. Raising a shamshir as he did so, Beast Boy then brought the weapon down, cutting off the front off the crossbow as it was about to fire again, leaving it unable to do so.

Undeterred, the Ophythian used what was left of his weapon as a club, slamming it into the side of Beast Boy's head. Dazed by the blow, the green Titan barely managed to deflect the next swing and then rammed into the lizard man with his shoulder. Twisting, the changeling was able to disarm the lizard man by slipping his sword through the bolt cartridge and pulling the weapon away from him. The surprised scout was then kicked in the chest and tumbled backwards, frantically getting to his feet as the changeling approached with his swords raised.

As he was going to attack, though, an image of a mage clad in purple, laying on the stone floor as her own blood pooled around her, entered the changeling's mind, and he froze, his eyes widening in fear as his hand poised for attack began to shake. Seeing this hesitation, the much more battle seasoned scout reached behind himself and drew out a dagger from the sheath at his lower back, standing to strike.

Brave, seeing both of these things, cursed under her breath. Knowing there was no time, she ran forward, Starfire now holding the green hood to her stomach in an effort to staunch the bleeding. Just as the lizard man sprung into action, aiming for the still frozen Beast Boy, the now hoodless mage came up behind him, jumped, grabbed the Ophythian's head as she flipped over, and twisted herself in midair. A crack sounded, and both Brave and the lizard man's body landed, Brave in a kneeling position, and the lizard man on his stomach, his broken neck protruding outward slightly.

She was worried about Beast Boy and angered by the things she had just been forced to do, but helping Starfire couldn't wait for either of these things to run their course. Knowing this, Brave quickly searched the fallen scout's pouches, finding medical bindings in the second pouch from the left. A continued search revealed a small vial in another ouch, and, upon inspection, Brave realized it must be what she needed. It made no sense to carry weapons with a poison that could kill within moments and then _not_ carry an antidote. The liquid in the vial appeared to be some kind of thrombin mixture, used for clotting blood. Desired items found, she ran back to Starfire.

As she did this, Zippy soared over to perch on the changeling's shoulder, said green Titan staring blankly at the fallen scout in front of him, weapons still out as he looked halfway between a battle position and a normal stance. His eyes were glazed over as though having some internal discussion or struggle, and his knuckles were turning white because the grip on his swords was so tight. He was drawn out of his reverie, however, when Brave spoke to the downed Tamaranean Princess.

"Starfire, I need to lift your shirt a little. I need to apply this antidote to stop the bleeding." the hoodless mage informed her hastily, still very aware that another scouting party could be very near.

At the word 'antidote', an alarmed Beast Boy hurried over to them as Starfire's shirt was lifted enough to expose her abdomen. ...Blood. There was so much blood coming from the wound. At the sight, the changeling felt his fists clench and his breathing quicken as panic began to set in. Too much blood. Too much... An image, the same as the one that appeared during the fight, appeared in his mind once more. ...So much blood... The green Titan closed his eyes tight, but that only made the image in his mind more vivid. Brave said something, but he couldn't hear what it was. He pressed his hands to his forehead, trying to force the images out... but it wasn't working. There was so much blood...

A sudden, stifled cry of pain escaped Starfire then, and his eyes shot open. Brave was tipping the contents of a vial over the would, small drops landing where the gash was deepest. Almost instantly, the bleeding slowed. A few more drops, and Brave closed the vial, putting it away in a pouch on her belt—had she brought it along with them?

"Alright, we need to wrap the wound." Brave informed them as she grabbed the medical bindings next to her(she must have brought those too), and Beast Boy snapped himself out of his reverie and knelt next to Starfire. He then gently lifted the wounded Titan's upper half enough for the mage to wrap her midsection. The Tamaranean Princess gritted her teeth through the pain, a few tears escaping at the severity of it, but she was unwilling to give away their position by crying out again. Beast Boy knew from experience that bottling physical pain made it a lot worse, and the gash on her stomach was the largest he'd ever seen.

After a few agonizingly slow moments, the wound was wrapped. Beast Boy picked up Starfire's flamberge and slid the weapon through one of his weapon straps, and the injured Titan was helped to her feet. They had no time to waste, so, both the changeling and Brave supporting their wounded comrade who was unable to stand on her own, the companions continued on, disappearing into the forest.

_TT_

_Kate/ Arin Centered POV:_

The ax fell, speeding towards her, the lizard-man closing in as well to a distance more suited for melee combat. In a frantic, yet strangely practiced and agile, movement, Kate strafed to the side half a step—she would later decline the remark that any sort of shriek escaped her at the lizard man's close proximity. Still in motion, she then struck the shaft of the ax in the middle of its decent with the spinning staff of her sanjiegun, sending its direction just enough to the side that it avoided her by mere inches. In another movement as the lizard man was beginning to teeter forward, a movement almost as fast as the first and antonymous to her previous alarmed squeak, she slammed her weapon into his face, introducing it to the all-business end of her sanjiegun.

The instant the metal came into contact with his face, all the energy stored in the weapon was released, potential changing to kinetic, and the lizard man was blasted backwards to crash into three of its comrades with such force that all of them fell backwards. The one left standing stared at his comrades with wide eyes, alarmed that something so much smaller than them could cause so much damage. Oh yes, Arin mused internally. Kate hit like a girl(2). While the three he crashed into slowly got back to their feet, the leader did not. It was difficult to tell if he had truly expired or was merely unconscious after the blow—given that he had been hit in the face, Arin was inclined to believe the former.

All movement ceased immediately when this event happened, all the reptilian men too stunned to move. This reaction was quite common when people—or rather things, in this case—were first introduced to the ability. In storing energy in its potential state in an object, Kate could then release all of it when striking something, doing so changing the energy into a fast moving kinetic form. This created devastating results for her foes, or really anything she hit.

These battle-seasoned foes they were up against, however, while initially stunned, quickly regained their composure and raring fighting spirit. They charged, both at her and at Arin, intending to kill the two supers and taking their weary comrade captive.

Now that they knew what she could do, the lizard men attacking Kate kept their distance as best as their weapons would allow while coordinating their attacks such that she was allowed little in the way of offensive strikes. Through her mastery of her weapon, she was able to deflect or avoid almost every attack they threw at her, but she knew she had to change things somehow or she wouldn't last long. This fact was made even more clear when her left calf was slashed by an ax, leaving a bleeding gash there. Grimacing in pain with her jaw clenched shut, Kate ducked bellow the swing of a sword and tumbled to the side, blocking the mace attack of the lizard man she approached with the crossed outer poles of her sanjiegun.

Quickly diverting the enemy's blow to the ground, Kate then poured energy into her feet and jumped, quickly flipping over the warrior to land behind him, charging her weapon again as she did so—it didn't take a lot of energy to do what she did, it simply took a great deal of energy control and timing. Raising her weapon, both hands on the edge of an outer pole, she brought the weapon down on the lizard man, who was able to see the attack coming from over his shoulder but was unable to avoid or deflect it because he was still facing the opposite direction. The pole farthest from her hands struck the top of his head, blasting him into his own personal crater in the ground. He didn't get up.

Meanwhile, Arin dodged the attack of the first lizard man to reach him and then rolled over his shoulder, kicking the shocked lizard man coming up next in the face. As the first turned to attack once more, Arin stepped closer to him, throwing his elbow into its face, a crunch sounding as his jaw snapped and a few teeth fell from his mouth. As the lizard man fell backwards, Arin snatched the curved sword from his hand, using it to deflect another attack as the remaining three enemies were now flanking him—the unfortunate one who had received a personal greeting from the brunet's elbow was on the ground, holding his bleeding snout.

Noticing out of the corner of his eye that Kate was getting backed into a corner by the three who know attacked her, Arin leapt over the fallen lizard man, avoiding the swing of an ax in the process, and upon landing on his feet again, threw his newly acquired sword in that direction. The sword pierced the chest of one of the lizard men, and he fell dead to the ground not two seconds later. This victory was short lived, however, when Arin cried out as he felt pain erupt in his right shoulder, a spiked mace striking him there. He was sent billowing to the ground in a heap, clutching his shoulder in pain.

His comrade noticed this, and, with an enraged cry, she swung her sanjiegun around herself and slashed it at the enemy closest to her. It broke right through his raised sword and struck his face, the shear force of hit turning his neck so hard that it snapped, and he too fell dead. As the last remaining lizard man close to her backed off a little in alarm, Kate took the opportunity to jump into the air, catching all three sections of her weapon in one hand and reaching behind herself. A small barrage of ninja stars flew towards the three lizard men surrounding Arin a split second later, and they quickly leapt back to dodge the aerial assault. Energy was released from the charged ninja stars once they struck the ground, and a concealing cloud of dirt was blown into the air.

Using the smoke screen, to her advantage, Kate ran forward as soon as she landed, rolling over Arin's back as he got to his hands and knees. Continuing her run forward as she released two of the poles of her weapon from her one-handed grasp, Kate broke through the cloud of dirt, surprising the three enemies. The nearest didn't even have the time to raise his ax before he was struck in the side of the head, the blast shooting him to crash into the wall off the cliff side head-first.

It's companion undeterred, however, took this opportunity to ram into Kate from the side, knocking her off balance. Unable to respond in time, he then backhanded her hard across the face, sending her to the ground with cry of pain when the scales of his hand cut her left cheek. Her sanjiegun fell from her grasp when she hit the ground, the air knocked out of her lungs, and the back of her head struck the ground. The brunette's vision swam a little when she was able to open her eyes, and she looked up to see the reptilian standing over her with a knife in his hand, his comrades smiling evilly, as they were sure this was the end of their foe. The lizard man raised the knife and attacked, intending to plunge it into Kate's chest, and, to her, the blade seemed to fall in slow motion, even to her dazed mind.

She was confused, however, when he froze mid-strike, and only when the tip of a blade broke through his chest did she know why. A gurgled gasp escaped its mouth, blood following the rhaspy breath, shortly before the creature fell dead beside her. Kate was left staring at her savior, a weary mage no one had noticed get up. The curved sword buried in the lizard man's back belonged to one of its fallen comrades, picked up by Raven when she awoke to discover the conflict. Kate released the air in her lungs in a relieved sigh. That had been _far_ too close for comfort.

When the violet-haired mage turned her scowling attention to the two remaining lizard-men, they took involuntary steps back. It was clear they held no desire to face this new foe who was emanating waves of intimidating magic, waves that cleared the smokescreen of dirt filling the area—Kate was relieved to discover Arin was alright, still clutching his injured shoulder. Turning, the reptilians fled, disappearing up the cliff and into the trees.

The instant they were out of sight, Raven collapsed to her knees with a pained gasp, a hand to her head as she breathed quickly. She had been bluffing, Kate realized. She didn't currently have the strength to fight; the only reason she had managed to kill the one was because she had snuck up on it.

"Kate." Arin said to get her attention as he equipped one of the swords from the fallen lizard men and then knelt next to the mage. He wrapped her arm around his neck, ignoring the pain in his shoulder as best he could, and stood, supporting her, and Kate snapped from her thoughts instantly.

"Right." she answered his unspoken comment of urgency as she too stood, retrieving and sheathing her sanjiegun, and the group was moving once more along the rocky shore. They could both sense that the two lizard men who had run off were heading towards a much larger group of undoubted enemies. They had to move now in order to avoid further detection.

_TT_

_Brave Centered POV:_

"I'm afraid that's all I can do for now." Brave said as she cleaned the large gash on Starfire's abdomen. The Tamaranean Princess grimaced as the mage pressed the wash cloth—which had actually been Brave's hood at one point—to the wound again in an attempt to clean the rest of the blood away. Beast Boy then supported their injured friend's upper half once again as the wound was re-bandaged, the old bloodied ones having been discarded next to her. Once that task had been completed, they rested her back on the ground, intending to give her a moment to rest before continuing on their way.

Everyone was silent through all of this, a silence that seemed louder to the hoodless mage than the noisiest dance club the Titans had ever attended. She had never cared to hear what the people in those places had had to say, but her friends were different. When _they_ were silent, it usually meant something was wrong, and one look at the green changeling would prove this fact beyond a doubt to anyone who knew him. He had still yet to say a single word since they had left Affection's Center,and his body language told the mage that he had closed himself off. It was defensive, his arms commonly crossed over his chest, and he kept his distance from everyone while trying to make it _look_ like he wasn't. Without her empathy, though, Brave could do nothing but guess as to the reasons for his seemingly indifferent silence—though her guesses were probably close to what the actual issue was.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden rustling of leaves, and everyone's attentions turned to the edge of the forest to see a brown figure drop into the clearing next to the creek. Alarmed, Beast Boy rose with his shamshirs at the ready, and Brave did the same, activating her wrist blades as she prepared for a fight. Zippy, meanwhile, stood protectively over Starfire, bearing his teeth as he growled threateningly. All were wondering what foe they had to face now, but when the figure stood, revealing their identity, they companions froze, mostly out of shock.

"Put your weapons away." Raven's umber-clad emotion said, hands raised to show she meant no harm. It wasn't really that she was _there_ that was surprising. It was the fact that she looked _normal_. Each time the group had faced one of the emotional counterparts, they had been appearing more and more reptilian each time, their cloaks adorning glowing symbols. But, Wisdom looked exactly like Raven, only wearing brown instead of the customary blue. She was fine?

"I've been waiting for you all to arrive. I assume the journey proved more difficult than initially intended based on our sudden visitors." she stated, not daunted when the companions didn't lower their weapons or their guards. "I'm afraid time is short, however, so we must be on our way quickly."

"We aren't going anywhere until you explain yourself." Brave retorted shortly, the umber-clad mage observing her calculatingly at this.

"...How troublesome." she sighed irritably, which caused the unhooded mage to raise her weapons further as her suspicions grew. Beast Boy's, though he was silent, did the same, his shamshirs poised for attack at any moment. "But fine. I shall oblige." she continued nervelessly, surprising the companions a little.

"O-okay," Brave hesitated slightly, taken back by her cooperation. "If you aren't under control, how is it none of us could tell." she asked suspiciously, referring to herself and the other freed embodiments. Wisdom didn't seem at all worried, obviously confident that she had nothing to hide.

"Cunning can be disadvantageous when wisdom is in great supply." she began in Raven's customary deadpan, her nonchalant demeanor over the situation beginning to lower the group's caution levels. "Under the demon's control, I was able to use the powers given to me to close myself off completely, effectively ending the possession. This also, however, closed off my mind to everything else, not just the demon. I was then able to fool her into believing I _had_ been corrupted, remaining where I could keep an eye on my currently unhinged realm associate. ...That is, until Knowledge's appearance began to change while mine remained the same. I have been hiding in the temple and surrounding forests since then." She explained, and her expression then turned uneasy.

"Though, when these beasts of Ophythians appeared, I was barely able to avoid capture. I don't wish to know what would have happened had that been the case." Everyone was silent for a moment upon hearing all of this until a new voice spoke up, surprising almost everyone.

"...That could be possible." the real Raven began slowly, as though she were still pondering the given information. "If you did close your mind off to keep the demon out, it could explain why I was unable to tell." The companions nodded at this, as it made at least some sense to them. The next voice to speak, however, had also been an unexpected one.

"Y-you referred t-to Knowledge as 'u-unhinged'. W-what did you m-mean by that?" An injured Starfire asked the umber-clad mage before them as she struggled to sit up, an arm wrapped around her midriff as she grimaced in pain.

"Ah- yes..." Wisdom began uneasily. "...Well, it would appear that knowledge in the hands of the mentally unstable is a very dangerous thing. The last I saw of her when I snuck in, she was... 'experimenting' is the only word I can think of to describe it. Though, in all honesty, her experiments are currently hindering our enemies more than they are us. As she has no other test subjects, it is the Ophythians who have fallen subject to her... methods of learning." None of the companions wanted to know what she could possibly mean by this, though they all had the feeling that they would find out soon enough since they were aiming to defeat Knowledge, or rather Insanity. Although, even Beast Boy, currently closed off in forced indifference, was almost amused when an image of a mad-scientist Raven appeared in his head, cackling over some boiling chemicals as a wide-eyed lizard man watched apprehensively from the table he was strapped to. The changeling _almost_ grinned.

"Regrettably," Wisdom continued, her deadpan sounding a little sarcastic as though to imply the opposite. "The time for conversation is over."

"I agree." Raven added from above. "You must continue quickly, or the demon will gain too much control." Brave nodded in understanding as she and Beast Boy put their weapons away and then turned to their injured comrade.

"Can you walk, Starfire?" she asked the Tamaranean Princess, who nodded silently in response. As she started to get up, though, she gasped in pain and nearly collapsed again. Nearly because Beast Boy had come up beside her and was now supporting his injured friend. Starfire grimaced, holding her injured midsection as she was forced to lean heavily on him. Giving Wisdom a slight nod of his own, the group continued on, Zippy now perching himself on Brave's shoulder as he watched their newest addition closely.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Because of the latest addition to the team, the journey to the temple from that point on was simpler than it would have been otherwise. Wisdom seemed to know the routes the patrols took and was thus able to lead the companions on a safe path through the woods. It was a few more hours until the group had made it to the temple, though, and, in that time, Starfire's advanced healing had begun to take its effect. By the time they reached the structure's base and entered the naturally formed tunnel there, her sword had been returned to her. She was walking on her own and forcing herself to keep at a quick pace so as to not slow the group down, though an arm was usually wrapped around her midriff.

As they moved through the poorly lit, torch-lined tunnel, Brave noticed a few times that Beast Boy would send a glance in Wisdom's direction, his eyes narrowing slightly whenever he did. Zippy was doing the same, the hoodless mage noted when she looked to the right at him. At first, she had thought it was just lingering suspicions, but, as this continued for the both of them, their suspicions not seeming to shrink in the slightest, she realized that they may have been a little too quick to trust Wisdom. But, there was also the chance that their animal instincts were simply on high alert after what had happened, their protectiveness over the injured Tamaranean leaving little room to trust anyone else they ran into.

Brave was forced to push her thoughts aside, however, when the companions came to a room that snaked into five separate tunnels She knew this place. Three of the tunnels were dead ends—though those dead ends were quite a ways out—and the other two would lead them where they wanted to go (one path was simply shorter than the other). Fortunate that two members of the group knew which way to go, or someone could spend many hours searching through the tunnels.

The group, following Wisdom as she was the only one with any idea of what to expect inside the temple, down the hallway next to the one farthest to the right. As they entered, though, the ground began to shake beneath their feet, and the group stopped. As the shaking grew more severe, a rumbling sound began to accompany it, quickly growing in intensity until it sounded as though a train was speeding through the tunnel they were in. Beast Boy, who's hearing was naturally enhanced, was forced to cover his ears, gritting his teeth as the sound undoubtedly hurt his eardrums. The last time the ground had begun to shake beneath the companions' feet, things had become quite disastrous for them, which was why all but Wisdom became worried almost instantly. The umber-clad mage also appeared concerned, but for a different reason.

Alarmed, she shouted, "Earthquake!" As if on cue, large rocks from the ceiling began to dislodge, crashing down around them. One such boulder crashed onto the ground beside Brave and then rolled to the side, knocking the hoodless mage's legs out from under her. Her back hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of her lungs. Coughing, she rolled onto her side and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, only to notice another boulder dislodged itself right above her. She instantly rolled forward, barely avoiding it.

Meanwhile, though his ears were covered, Beast Boy's advanced hearing drew his attention overhead, and he noticed a boulder was about to crush both Starfire and himself. On instinct, he pushed the Tamaranean Princess farther into the tunnel, the action sending him in the other direction, and the boulder barely missed the both of them. As more rocks continued to fall, the companions were forced to move, Wisdom supporting Starfire, and Zippy heading farther into the tunnel while Brave and Beast Boy exited it. So much dirt was kicked up that none of them noticed the group had been separated until the shaking and the noise finally stopped. The companions were left to stare at the mouth of the tunnel, completely blocked off with rubble.

Hurrying up to the collapsed tunnel, Brave hollered, "Is everyone okay?" Beast Boy was quickly next to her, worried for their friends as well.

"...Yes." came Wisdom's greatly muffled voice. "...leari... is wi... too lo... ...ou two will …nee... ake... onger rou... nd mee...wi...s." was all the hoodless mage managed to hear, and she blinked. She was about to ask her other counterpart to repeat herself when Beast Boy spoke up next to her.

"She says we should take the longer route." he supplied shortly, speaking for the first time in hours, and Brave turned to observe him for a second before nodding. Was it strange to believe she had almost forgotten what his voice sounded like because he had been silent for so long? She quickly shook these thoughts aside as she shifted her attention back to the matter at hand.

Turning back to the collapsed tunnel, she shouted, "Alright." before turning and heading over to the far left tunnel. Luckily, it hadn't collapsed, though two of the other tunnels had. Beast Boy observed the collapsed tunnel for a moment longer before silently following after her.

_TT_

_Kate/ Arin Centered POV:_

"It's not that I mind." Kate continued, babbling anxiously at this point as she and Arin sat a ways away from Raven, currently meditating on a rock overlooking the sea. It had been a few hours since they had escaped their would-be-captors, and the brunette had been going on for about ten minutes, blowing off steam in the only way she knew how. Ranting. Rants were quite common-place for her companion, his silence offsetting her talkativeness, to hear. But, he never seemed to mind, which was probably why he heard them so often. Arin listened silently as he dabbed the wet cloth in his hand over the bloody cuts on his chatty companion's cheek, cleaning the blood away. Her right calf and his left shoulder had already been bandaged, and, given their placement, Kate couldn't really see the scratches. Thus, the job of cleaning them fell to Arin.

"I know everyone needs their secrets," she continued anxiously, gesturing with her hands as she was prone to doing, "and I'm grateful she killed that thing before it could do the same to me. It's just, we barely made it out of that last fight in time to avoid getting captured, and those were lizard people." she emphasized the word 'lizard' here as if that was the most crucial detail to gather from their fight. "I've never seen a lizard person before, but I don't like them! I hate snakes; they creep me out! I'd just like to know what we're up against here. Are there going to be a lot of snakes?"

Arin, appearing quite amused as her maundering focus proceeded to wonder, continued to dab the damp cloth on her cheek whenever her ranting would allow. He, of course, already knew of her fear of snakes. He had used one in a prank—normally uncharacteristic for him to pull unless it was with his closest friends—during one of her birthday parties. He had nearly been pummeled unconscious by the then angered brunette in response. He also knew, however, that she could go on and on if not stopped, personifying Newton's second law of physics quite well—an object in motion continues in motion until acted upon by an outside force.

"You're rambling." he stated simply, cutting short whatever thought on snakes she had been about to voice.

"I know." she admitted with a helpless sigh. "I just really don't want to fight any snakes, a-" She stopped her starting rant short when the still amused warrior next to her placed his hand on her shoulder, getting her attention once more.

"Breath." he said shortly, trying to calm her down. Complying, Kate took in a deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth, though this mostly came out as another sigh. It worked a little, though. Her pulse had somewhat returned to normal at least.

"Alright, well, creepy slithering things aside, where are Starfire and Beast Boy?" she then asked, Arin's amused grin fading at this, as he had been wondering the same thing for a while now. "Didn't Robin say they should be with her? I would definitely think they'd beat us to her, even if they did get lost a few times."

"I agree." Arin said with a nod. "They can both fly. They would have caught up to her faster than we did." Kate nodded thoughtfully, silent for a moment as she tried to think of a possibility to explain this odd phenomenon. She was about to suggest they hadn't been able to find Raven before the mage moved out of her initial hiding zone and were still looking there, when Raven herself suddenly spoke up.

"They _are_ with me." she answered loud enough for them to hear from their current distance—a distance Raven had recommended should she have another 'episode'. The two turned their now confused expressions in her direction.

Raven, in response, stood and moved over to join them. She looked exhausted, almost like she hadn't gotten any rest since this had all begun. Her movements were slow, her eyes were a little bloodshot, and there were dark rings under her eyes. There was also the ever present vein bulging on her left temple. Had she slept at all since they had arrived? Maybe her meditation didn't help with resting or only did on a minimal level. Whatever was going on with this demon Robin had mentioned, things were clearly taking their toll on the mage. When she spoke again, her voice came out strained and weary.

"I suppose it's time I explain everything." she began as she sat down.

_TT_

_Brave Centered POV:_

Brave awoke to the sound of quiet splashes, almost as if someone had their hand in water and was quickly moving it back and forth. Looking around, she spotted Beast Boy a few feet away. They had found a small waterway after traveling down the tunnel for a few minutes, and it had continued to follow them down the poorly lit tunnel for the next few hours. They had decided to take a short break, determining the current spot was just as good as any other, and Brave must have dozed off for a few minutes. Beast Boy was currently kneeling in front of the small waterway that ran adjacent to their path, scrubbing his hands fanatically. The hoodless mage didn't need empathy to know what was wrong. At least, not completely. After contemplating over their fight with the scouting party, she had drawn a few conclusions.

Standing, she silently made her way over to him, only to see that he was scrubbing so hard, his hands were bleeding. Red seeped into the water for quite a distance, so he hadn't just started bleeding, either. And yet, he was still scrubbing, making himself bleed even more by trying to _remove_ blood that wasn't actually there.

"You're bleeding." Brave said, kneeling down and placing one of her hands between his, stopping their incessant motion. He tensed immediately at the contact, likely not even realizing he had tilted slightly away from her. But, Brave did. He was avoiding her just as he had been before.

"I'm fine." he mumbled as he stood, quickly snatching his hands from hers without giving her so much as a glance, and he then turned to continue down the tunnel. Everything about him was contradicting that statement, though. His stiff, even subdued body language, the tight-lipped frown that seemed to be Gorilla Glued to his face, and then there was the all around "un-Beast Boy-ness" about him. _He_ was usually the one who always managed to find something to smile about when no one else could, and the lack of that smile, and the insipid tirade of jokes that seemed to follow it everywhere like a shadow, meant something had affected him deeply. And Brave had a feeling as to what that something was.

"Let's keep moving." the changeling grumbled dismissively, oblivious to the many thoughts tumbling through the hoodless mage's mind. Ohhh, no. She wasn't dropping this that easily. If he could continue to pester her when he felt it was necessary—which appeared to be almost _all_ of the time—than she would do the same now.

"You're not brushing this off like it's nothing! I _know_ you're not." was the intrepid mage's stern response, and he stopped in his tracks.

"You don't have your powers. You don't know what I'm feeling." he retorted, his voice a little louder this time as he still refused to look at her.

"I don't need them to." Brave responded, undeterred. "I know enough without them to know you're not fine."

"Fine, whatever! But, it's not important right now. Let's just go!" he shot back before starting forward once more.

"Beast Boy, you froze." Brave stated persistently, stopping him once more. His fists clenched tightly, the force making a little blood drip from the unhealed results of his contained frustrations. "You didn't hesitate in that battle, you actually _froze_." she continued, her monotonous tone doing nothing towards making her come across as uncaring. "I've never seen you do that before." This comment obviously struck an easily agitated chord within the changeling because he shot around to face her, his pupils constricting slightly in a sign, in this case, of the rage building in him.

"Yeah, well, I've never seen you kiss anyone either, so I guess there's a first time for everything!" he snapped accusingly and then turned away from her and continued down the hall, each step landed harder than necessary on the damp rock floor.

It took a moment for Brave's mind to register the fact that he'd actually said what he had. She had hoped that particular incident wouldn't become an issue. A foolish thing to hope, really, given the situation. If the tables had been turned around, she too would have been upset. But, she also didn't doubt the changeling's intelligence. She knew he understood why the circumstances at that time had left no sensible alternative.

"You know why I had to do that!" the hoodless mage shot back as she grabbed his shoulder to turn him back to face her, now getting frustrated herself at his unusual unwillingness to speak his mind which, normally, was impossible to keep locked up.

"Yeah, I do, but _that_'s not what's botheri-!" he cut himself short as though realizing something and took a deep, calming breath. With a frustrated sigh, he turned to walk away once more, waving his hand dismissively. Did he honestly think she'd let this conversation end here?

"What? What's bothering you, Beast Boy? Because I can't tell anymore!" she demanded, furious that her empathy wasn't working, as it might have given some clue. Instead of answering, the changeling just kept on stomping down the hall(oh yes, they were being _very_ stealthy. No one would _ever_ hear them coming.) Catching up with him, Brave passed him this time, blocking his path forward and leaving him with no choice but to finish this conversation.

"Beast Boy!" she snapped furiously, demanding he be upfront with her. He, in return, looked about to burst, and, taking in a breath first, he basically did.

"You wanna' know?" he asked, a feral glint in his eyes as he didn't even wait for an answer before continuing.. "_Fine_! I'm angry 'cause you knew kissing me would shock me out of that nightmare thing! That means you know how I feel about you, which, now that I think about it makes sense, but that also means you've known and done _nothing_ about it! You didn't even let me know that you knew! You let me secretly pine after you for years and acted as though you couldn't care less!" he shouted irately.

Brave, for all her nearly ill-famed gusto, was left speechless. It hadn't even occurred to her, that this could be even part of the issue. _How_ hadn't this occurred to her? While the hoodless mage didn't possess Raven's complete, vast chasms of intellect, this seemed fairly obvious. Of course he would be angry over something like that. Anyone would. The normally green-clad mage, however, was knowledgeable in the areas of combat, covert ops, and all around bad-guy-butt-kickings. She had no idea how to deal with this situation, which was likely why she looked like a fish out of water at that moment, mouth hanging open in a manner that probably would have been funny under different circumstances. Angrily, the changeling shoved past her, continuing to stomp down the poorly lit tunnel.

"Beast Boy-" Brave started, knowing she should try and say _something_. But, he cut her off before she could.

"I don't wanna' talk about this anymore." he grumbled without even turning to look at her, his lightly echoed footsteps not missing a beat, and she was then able to hear the well-hidden hurt in his voice. It was an undertone that sent a pang of guilt through her as she realized she should have spoken to him about this sooner. "Let's just keep moving." He added, and Brave hesitated before following after him, unsure of what she was supposed to do next.

* * *

_(1) The Ophythian's legs are shaped like those of a bird or dinosaur in that there are two joints between the hips and the ankles. Brave sliced the top joint of these two on both of the scout's legs, the joint that basic shape of a human's._

_(2) __.com/?q=Tifa/%20Dead%20Fantasy%20V&order=9&offset=24#/d275pq5__ If anyone can't tell or the picture won't open/load, the picture is Tifa Lockhart about to crush a ninja's head with the shaft of a hydraulic car jack; the end of it was already broken off by bludgeoning a few ninja's with it a few times. Hitting like a girl indeed. Tifa's like the Jackie Chan of Final Fantasy! Keep in mid, this is a _steel_ car jack and is likely _quite_ heavy. Definitely not intended for weaponry use when initially designed—though it seemed to work well here :P. The image is a still someone captured from Monty Oum's "Dead Fantasy V". If you haven't seen them, I would definitely recommend it! They're awesome, and I believe the first few are done solely by Monty Oum. I do feel bad for Tifa in the fifth one, though. She _so_ didn't deserve that. Fights like the ones in these videos are what I keep trying to put into writing, but it's very _very_ hard._

_I swear I will try to get the next chapter out in the next month!_

_Please review, they inspire me._


	17. Shifting Ground

_I think I might have lied last time. There might be about seven chapters left, not five. Either way, I hope you enjoy this one :)_

_To Taeniea: Thanks, I'll try to keep 'em that way._

_To FelynxTiger:I noticed that, but I'm sure you were busy. I for one know how busy a person can get :p. Anyway, I hope your psychology exam went well, and thanks. The "Beast Boy conflict" continues here, and I've noticed I've been particularly mean to Starfire. 4 degree burns, poisonings, being impaled, nearly being killed by Lust. Poor alien princess doesn't deserve it _:/_. *Starfire starts singing "I will survive"* *Disco Ball lands on me instead of her*. Hope you like this chapter :D_

_To Wolfhead:Thanks. As for Wisdom, trust must be earned, and I for one really enjoy imagining Insane cackling like a mad scientist over her experiments hehehe X)_

_On to the chapter!_

* * *

'Uncomfortable' had nothing on the silence that stretched between them as Beast Boy and Brave continued down the seemingly endless tunnel. The changeling still wouldn't look at the silent mage after their fight, and he pushed on with a single-minded determination he wasn't known for most of the time. But, he was excellent at avoiding certain subjects when he wanted to, setting about a given task instead of broaching whatever topic was troubling him. It was a skill, really, used when he wanted to shut others out of his personal issues until he had dealt with them himself. Did it always work? No, but it came in handy nonetheless.

Of course, he knew he'd have to talk about his problems eventually, but he disliked being forced to do so before he was ready. He also knew that fact wasn't provocation enough to have yelled before, but he was too stubborn to admit that fact to either himself or to Brave. So, he fumed silently as the pair trudged along.

However, the changeling found his mind, and thus his feet, suddenly stopping as again he heard the trouble before either he or the hoodless mage next to him felt it. A rumbling fast approaching their location. But yet again, it wasn't enough of a warning for them to do anything before the ground beneath their feet started to quake.

Not again! If the tunnel they were currently in collapsed like the last one, how would they be able to get any farther? Beast Boy doubted there was a third entrance at all, much less one they could reach in any amount of reasonable time.

But, his thoughts were interrupted as, with the tremors' increase in strength, large rocks soon began breaking loose from the small tunnel's ceiling. Glancing at Brave, he did a double take upon noticing that her eyes were shut as she held a hand to her temple, almost as though she was in pain.

Had she been hit, he wondered concernedly. No, it looked like she had a... headache? Whatever the case, she seemed unable to move as chunks of stone fell to the ground all around them, some far too close for comfort.

Beast Boy had to step back to avoid being bludgeoned by a basketball sized rock that would have pegged him in the gut, but a sudden cry of pain from the hoodless mage as a rock struck her shoulder drew his attention immediately. A hand still clutching her temple, she now held her injured shoulder as well but still seemed unable to move. The green titan had thought he had seen her reactions dim during the last earthquake, but now she was immobilized. The timing was too in sync with the current tremors for the two things to be mere coincidences.

TT

_Starfire Centered POV:_

After walking for a few hours, Starfire had begun to wonder if the tunnel truly was endless. That was, until the trio had finally entered more structured tunnels, the naturally formed walls giving way to the large expertly crafted and intricately engraved stone bricks she now saw. They were probably beneath the main structure, she surmised, or were at least close to it.

It was also for this reason of stabler surroundings that the earthly rumblings currently shaking the group of three were less of a threat. Now it wasn't the risk of being crushed by falling rubble that worried the emerald-eyed titan. It was Zippy. Shortly after this newest of earthquakes had begun, he had frozen, blacking out seconds later.

The timing itself was strange, and Starfire wondered if the earthquake was proof of a mental struggle Raven was engaged in. That, in turn, could be the cause of Zippy's troubles. If the mind that had created him was harmed, would he be harmed in turn?

"We must continue!" Wisdom shouted over the thunderous rumbles, and Starfire looked up to her from the collapsed pseudodragon she was carrying. "We don't have much time as it is, and these earthquakes are testament that our task is running even shorter on time than expected! We can't stop! With any luck, the others won't be too far behind!" she continued, and the Tamaranean Princess nodded. With that, the two hurried on through the tunnels, trying their best to keep their footing as they went.

_TT_

_BB Centered POV:_

"Look out!" the changeling shouted as he pushed Brave out of the way of another rock, pinning the mage against the wall to use his body as a shield for her own as the rain of rubble continued. He used his arms to cover her head instead of his own as a few stones struck him painfully in several places, but he ignored them. His instincts were simply telling him to protect Brave, and he was never one to ignore what his instincts told him to do.

He didn't know how long it took, but, at last, the rumbling and the tremors ceased, and the pelting of stones finally stopped.

Beast Boy took in a few calming breaths, trying to slow his pulse as he glanced around warily, a few new bruises twinging slightly in the process. More rubble and small boulders spotted the floor of the tunnel, but there hadn't been a complete cave-in like last time, fortunately for them. This time, the earthquake had been seemingly less severe, but they had to move nonetheless in case another hit while they were still in the cramped walking space. They may not be so fortunate next time.

The green titan turned back to Brave to ask if she was alright, but his mind froze when he saw she was already staring at him, her violet eyes scanning his as though looking for something. Her expression, namely her searching eyes, showed a little shock as well as something he couldn't define. But, _why_ was she shocked, he couldn't help but wonder? Was she surprised he had protected her despite their previous fight? Sure, he may have been angry, but...

He would have continued pondering the subject, but he then noticed how close they were, faces mere inches apart as he still had her pinned to the wall protectively. The changeling took a quick step back, his eyes hardening stubbornly as he had yet to actually forgive her.

He then turned his gaze down the tunnel again, the mage's eyes continuing to observe him as he did so. As his mind worked furiously, though, the changeling was then struck with a sudden realization. Brave had been affected during each Earthquake. So...

Why hadn't Wisdom been affected the first time?

Could it be that she was strengthened being so close to her own center or she simply hadn't been affected enough for the ailments to manifest themselves physically then? Or was it actually possible that... No... What would be the point to that?

Brave picked up on the change in his mood, especially when he turned to look at her once more, most of the anger from before replaced with frustrated confusion.

"What is it?" she asked, knowing he had to have realized something important, but he didn't respond, likely from an indecision as to how exactly he should do that.

"...We have to move." he said seriously as he turned and began to jog down the tunnel. Brave's confused violet orbs trailed after him for a moment before she pushed herself from the wall and followed.

_TT_

_Arin Centered POV:_

Time. All they had to buy was some time for Raven to get farther away before regrouping with her.

With that idea in the back of his mind, Arin strafed the quick slash of a mace and grabbed the attacker's arm, reminding himself that that task could be much more difficult to actually accomplish when pitted against seemingly endless foes.

Flipping over the Ophythian's shoulder and pulling his legs in, he then kicked with both feet, his heels meeting the jaw of the lizard man behind the first, a crack sounding as the jawbone was dislocated. Kicking off into a back flip, the martial arts specialist then drove his heels into the back of the first's head, forcing his face to greet the ground rather unceremoniously.

As Arin landed on the ground, two more assailants had been downed, one unconscious with his face in the dirt and the other collapsed backwards as he held his broken jaw. They had joined the dozen or so defeated foes he had already faced, but more kept coming, filing in through the forest's tightly spaced trees and into the small clearing.

Unperturbed by his battle prowess, the next few lizard men approached, and Arin prepared himself for the continued fight. When the nearest Ophythian rose his sword to attack, the ex-assassin sprung into action... and froze in wide-eyed shock when another Ophythian crashed into his assailant from the side. The sword flew from the surprised lizard man's hand, and Arin barely caught it before it whacked him in the head. The sheer force of the blow sent both lizard men flying to crash through a nearby tree.

Now weakened, the trunk of the tree loosed a series of deep groans as its weakened structure splintered where the assailants had struck it, shrapnel of stakes flying as the trunk began to twist unnaturally, no longer able to hold its own weight.

Out of sheer instinct, Arin used his newly acquired sword to cut any splintered wood that flew his way, though the nearby assailants saw fit to continue attaching _him_ rather than defending themselves against the shrapnel.

While some of them met untimely ends or simply became personally acquainted with the attention-deprived wooden stakes, Arin cursed inwardly when he was forced to deflect a powerful downward slash, stumbling backwards from the sheer force of the blow. As the Ophythian lifted his intricate metal spear into the air and drove it downward, intending to skewer him, the ex-assassin rolled backwards, the weapon digging into the ground instead of his chest.

Instantly getting to his feet, pushing energy into his limbs to increase his movement speed, Arin rushed forward, and drove the sword in his hand into the lizard man's belly. As a dying gurgle was released from his throat, the deafening groans of the tree trunk reached the ex-assassin's ears once more, and he turned just in time to see the giant bur oak's trunk had given way, leaving not enough time to move before it came crashing down on top of him, the dying lizard man in front of him, and another lizard man behind him who had managed to sneak up with a dagger drawn.

_TT_

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Starfire, Wisdom, and Zippy had entered a spacious room, larger than any the Tameranian Princess had seen thus far. The ceiling and far wall, being so distant, were almost completely obscured in shadow. At the side walls, the floor gave way to pits whose dark depths hid how deep they were, though she guessed, were one to fall, they would not find their death quickly. Enormous, ornamental pillars supported the shadowed ceiling, their bases disappearing into the pits, and unusual, floating orbs of light filled the room at periodic intervals, offering the only sources of light.

As the trio walked through the room, the auburn-haired titan glanced at Zippy worriedly once more, still concerned after he had frozen during the last earthquake. He hadn't looked as though he was frozen with fear, he just looked... frozen, almost as though he had temporarily ceased to function before blacking out completely. He seemed fine for the moment, though, casually perched on her shoulder. The Tamaranean wished to ask about the phenomenon, but she couldn't until she had made sure of something else first.

Wisdom continued leading the way, walking along the path formed of descently long platforms, a small set of stairs connecting each to the next, creating a slight incline as the room continued. While this setting could prove difficult, Starfire knew this was the place she had to implement her test as waiting further could be unwise. She had to know before regrouping with the others, as conflicting opinions could cause them to overlook things on this particularly delicate subject. So, she would act alone and deal with the consequences should any arise.

"Excuse me?" she began, the only other sounds present being their footsteps echoing off of the stone walls.

"Hm?" the mage asked, though she seemed distracted, half her mind being elsewhere.

"Where is the penny?" the Tamaranean girl asked, and the empath's footsteps halted, Starfire's joining. The mage, in response to the question, turned to look at her and blinked. Then realizing what the alien girl meant, she looked down to her right wrist only to notice one very simple fact. The penny that was normally tied there was gone.

"...That's strange." the umber-clad mage stated to herself, her brow quirked in confusion as she glanced around the immediate area. She was quick to the conclusion that it wasn't anywhere in sight. Starfire's suspicions were proven correct by her nonchalant, almost distant, tone, and her mouth drew into a tight-lipped frown.

"Hmm... I could have sworn it was just here. Where could it have gone? ...I suppose I'll need to find another after all of this is over." the mage continued, and with that she was about to move on when she felt a cold, sharp edge against the side of her neck. She stop dead in her tracks instantly, eyes widening in shock. A flamberge, the only one in the area, was now resting against her neck, ready to cut through at a moment's notice.

"What are you doing?" Wisdom demanded, raising her arms in surrender, barely able to look over her shoulder at the Tameranian girl threatening her.

"You are not Raven." Starfire responded matter-of-factly, Zippy growling at the mage from the alien girl's shoulder.

"What are you talking about? Of course I am! I'm part of her!" Wisdom shot back angrily, seemingly frustrated by their pause in progressing further into the temple. In response, the Tameranian Princess raised her free hand, revealing a copper penny attached to a string (when had she taken it?).

The penny had been altered slightly, appearing different than the average once cent piece. A small loop was formed at the top where a string could be tied, allowing the penny to be worn instead of carried in a pocket. Its surface was also so worn that the Lincoln memorial and Lincoln's silhouette were barely distinguishable as such anymore, the result of the owning mage's anxious habit of rubbing the penny between her thumb and fore finger.

"If you were Raven, you would have known that this penny is not replaceable." Starfire answered simply. "It's value is not derived from that which society has doted upon it." she continued, and it was clear that she held no doubts on the conclusions she had drawn.

"Its worth comes from a select set of circumstances that proved of _true_ value to Raven, given to her during one of the most distressing times of her life. A time not too dissimilar from this one, in fact. This penny is a charm of luck, so to speak. One which cannot be replaced lightly. You are not Raven, or even a part of her, or you would have known this." Wisdom's eyes were wide for a moment upon hearing all of this information, but her expression quickly shifted into an amused smirk.

"What can I say?" she asked with an amused sneer, and this time it was Starfire's eyes that widened. It had been Wisdom who had spoken, but the female voice that came from her mouth was _not_ Raven's, as it had been before. It sounded more malevolent. Evil even.

"I only got the CliffsNotes version." the imposter laughed, knowing her cover was lost. "I heard Raven is supposed to be intelligent. I'm disappointed to discover she may actually be lacking in this department, to believe in something so childish!" she mocked heartily as she continued to laugh.

Starfire was about to defend her friend in saying it was not a weakness to desire to believe in certain things or to hold certain mementos in sentimental regards. Her words fell silent, however, when she noticed Zippy out of the corner of her eye, her attention immediately drawn to him.

The slits of his pupils had constricted to paper thin lines, all of his fangs bared as he hunched low. The little dragon was _furious_! With a growl, he leapt down from Starfire's shoulder, landing in a crouch as he faced the umber-cloaked imposter whose gaze, along with the uncertain Tamaranian Princess's, followed him.

"Insulted your friend, have I, lizard?" 'Wisdom' asked insultingly, but her smirk faded slightly when his growls began to grow deeper, more closely resembling those of a much larger creature. It wasn't long before his body began to change as well. ...He appeared to be growing, Starfire realized. Both in size and musculature.

As he grew, his wings began to recede into his back, thick natural armor plating taking their place, darker along his spine than the rest of him. His growing tail soon ended in a club of deadly spikes, and his claws and teeth grew proportionally with the rest of him. The armor plating soon spread to cover the front of his face, leaving one devastating creature before the two girls where a previously tiny one had been.

By the time his transformation had finished, the normally petite lizard stood a foot taller then Starfire while he was on all fours! Zippy loosed a feral roar as he lifted his large tail and then slammed it onto the ground, easily crushing the tiles he struck and sending shock waves through the platform by the sheer force of it. His gaze was leveled on the brown-clad mage before them, his normally light and cheerful eyes now furious and feral, almost seeming ignited by golden flames to accompany the rage poised behind them.

"...Well, isn't this interesting." Wisdom's imposter stated almost curiously as she looked into the eyes of the beast she had awakened.

_TT_

_Kate Centered POV:_

Horrified, Kate' watched as the enormous tree came crashing down, felled by one of her own attacks. Alarmed and rightfully afraid, many of the Ophythians had been unable to scurry or dive out of the way in time, most of them tripping over their compatriots, and a whole group of them, and most importantly Arin, vanished beneath the tangled mass of branches and leaves. A thunderous rumble filled the clearing, accompanied by the harmony of snapping branches and pained cries as the Ophythians were crushed beneath the tree's massive girth, and the sheer vibrations of the tree's landing were enough to knock Kate and nearly everyone else in the area off of their feet.

Frozen by the fear for her companion's safety, the brunette could only stare with wide eyes at what she had done. The group had decided that the beach was far too predictable as there were only two possible directions to go. As such, they had entered the woods. But... she had never thought something like this could happen.

After the ground finally settled, her mind ceased its process when the branches of the tree soon began to move by forces not belonging to the wind. Numerous branches were pushed aside as the few lucky Ophythians who had survived struggled to pull themselves out from the branches. One after another were free of the mass of leaves, and dread began swelling in Kate just before one of the lizard men fell lifeless to the ground, revealing a battered looking Arin, numerous cuts covering his person. He was alive! At the sight of him, Kate took in a shuddering breath as overwhelming relief washed over her. He was alive!

Once free of his prison, the tired swordsman collapsed next to the fallen lizard warrior with a cry of pain, ripping out a dagger buried in is right thigh.

"Arin!" Kate exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. As she ran forward, she disappeared in a flash of light, skipping over a few Ophythians as they regained their feet and bearings, and reappeared next to her injured friend. "Arin, I'm sorry!" she apologized frantically as she knelt next to him, placing her hand o the particularly large gash in his thigh to help stop the bleeding. "I didn't- I'm such an idiot! I should've looked—" she stopped when he suddenly reached under the collar of his shirt and threw a throwing knife right past her head. Turning, she saw an Ophythian, battle ax raised for a killing blow, fall to the ground with the blade buried between his eyes. It was then the brunette took notice that their assailants were over their shock and moving in to continue the fight.

Rising to her feet as another charged to attack, Kate poured energy into her sanjiegun. She then ducked beneath the slash of his curved blade and stepped closer. He saw what was coming, but he was unable to defend himself or move fast enough to avoid the attack. Instead, the outer pole of the sanjiegun struck him in the gut at an upward angle. The resulting blast launched him in to the air, and the wingless lizard man disappeared over the canopy of leaves.

Turning, as another had come up behind Arin and herself, Kate connected the outer poles to the inner and twisted them, locking them in place to form a quarter staff, and struck the lizard man in the chin with the butt of the staff. While she hadn't stored energy for the attack, he was still sent tumbling backwards with a broken jaw. Spinning around once more, she struck another at the edge of her attack range across the face, sending him to the ground as well.

As she prepared to peg another in the chest, all motion ceased once more when a flare of energy suddenly shot into the air a few dozen yards to the west.

The signal!

Knowing they needed an escape strategy, Kate spun the quarterstaff in her hands a few times as she raised it over her head, charging it with more energy than was used in her normal attacks. She then brought the weapon down, striking the ground with its base, and a flash of energy moved from the bottom to her hand before expanding. The wave of energy that was released knocked everyone off of their feet, save for Kate herself and Arin, who was already beneath the wave.

Wasting no time as they fell, Kate untwisted her weapon and folded it once more, sheathing it at her waist before kneeling down to help Arin to his feet.

Supporting him, the two were then off, running through the forest toward the flare. Once she was sure they were out of sight, she ceased using additional energy to boost their movement speed, knowing their enemies could track it, and the pair began running normally to the south where she could actually sense Raven.

Fortunately for them, their plans of decoy flares, made to go off after a certain time, had worked wonderfully thus far, buying the group maybe a day before their trail would be picked up again by the Ophythians.

_TT_

_Starfire Centered POV:_

Whenever Raven used her magic, an aura of black energy customarily engulfed her hands, blue energy if she was healing someone. If neither was the case, it would still be required that a gesture of some kind be necessary to get the magic to do what she wished it to. Suffice to say, one could normally tell when she was about to do something, though that didn't make her attacks any less effective most of the time.

It was probably this understanding of the mage's powers that, when 'Wisdom' simply snapped her fingers, the Tamaranean Princess had not expected the explosion that was suddenly birthed between them and was thus thrown backwards before she could react. Now protected only by cloth and light leather pads, Starfire cried out in pain when she truck one of the stone pillars, the impact igniting a fiery pain in her still healing stomach wound. Her flamberge fell limp from her grasp as she collapsed to one knee, a hand pressed tightly to her midriff as she grimaced in pain.

A bestial roar drew her attention from her throbbing midsection to Zippy, protected from the explosion by his newly acquired thick armor plating, as he turned and raised his massive tail. Cunning, protected by a magical barrier—a light magenta replacing Raven's black—clearly saw her barrier was outmatched as she leapt back just as Zippy's tail broke through the magic like a demolition ball through glass, crushing the stone tiles the mage had just been standing on. The now enormous lizard then took in a breath and shot a large fireball at the imposter. Eyes widening, the mage jumped into the air to avoid the attack.

Meanwhile, it was the magical barrier that had proven to Starfire that this imposter wasn't even a _part_ of Raven, like the others had been. It was as though, instead of the emotional embodiment being tainted, it had been taken over by someone else, someone who now wore the visage like a cloak. Uncharacteristic rage boiled inside the auburn-haired titan at this, and her fists and jaw clenched tightly. _One_ intruder wasn't enough? There had to be _two_ separate entities tagging together to assault her friend from the _inside_?

Enraged, the Tamaranean warrior grabbed her fallen flamberge, pain forgotten in her fury, and charged forward as Zippy unleashed his devastating fireball. With a furious battle cry, she leapt into the air after the retreating mage, closing the distance between them quickly with her sword raised over her head. Even the collected intruder seemed surprised by this, barely able to strafe in midair—the ability to fly becoming clear from this—to avoid the large blade's deadly and swift descent.

Unperturbed, Starfire tumbled upon landing on the ground and turned her furious gaze upward once more as Cunning struck one of the pillars with her fist, then using a telekinesis similar to Raven's send the resulting rubble flying at the auburn-haired titan.

The projectiles were cut effortlessly by quick slashes of the warrior's blade, the pieces flying around her to smash into the ground. Cutting the last makeshift missile, Starfire caught one of the halves as it passed her and reversed its momentum, throwing it with all of her alien strength at the floating enemy.

Eyes widening, Cunning strafed to the side once more, but it was only the barrier she erected that protected her from harm as she did so. The rubble, though shattering the barrier, was deflected to the side just enough to miss her otherwise frail frame.

Another roar rebounded off of the stone walls, and both women turned to Zippy just as he took in another breath and loosed a deadly jet of flame at 'Wisdom'. Reacting instantly, the mage, clearly becoming irritated by this point, shot a bolt of magenta energy to meet the flames. On impact, the stream of fire imploded, the resulting burst of heat that filled the area, forcing Starfire to shield her eyes.

A brief image of charred flesh entered the Tamaranean's mind, but she quickly expelled it, keeping her mind on the fight.

Once the heat subsided, she quickly scanned the area but could only locate Zippy, his gaze too scouring the room for their assailant. It was the light ruffling of fabric above her that alerted the wary alien warrior of the danger from above, and she jumped backwards, slashing with her sword as she did so. The mage, driving her heel downward from above was sliced in half at the stomach... but her visage then flickered before vanishing completely! An illusion?

The alarmed Tamaranean Princess was then struck from behind by a kick from the real intruder, sending her tumbling forward. Cunning held her hand up to the grounded titan, an aura of magenta surrounding the appendage as energy crackled to life in her fist, her irises glowing with the same magenta hue.

A still enraged Zippy loosed another roar as he dove forward. Curling his legs inward and his tail around himself, the spikes at the end laying down to prevent him from stabbing himself, the large lizard rolled forward at a speed unthought of given his size.

In about the span of a single second, he had closed the ten foot distance between himself and the two combatants, and, a few feet from Starfire, he kicked off of the ground with his front feet, vaulting over the alien princess to slam into the assaulting mage with all of his rotating girth, forcing the air in her lungs out with an audible 'oof'. Though unable to avoid the attack, she did manage to push herself to the side before being crushed by the massive lizard, tumbling to the ground instead.

Recovering her breath, she quickly picked herself up as Starfire charged in once more. Reacting promptly, the mage began to block the Tamaranean warrior's attacks by creating controlled force fields. It almost looked as thought she was combating a sword by pushing it away with the palm of her hand; it was only the quick bursts of magenta that told Starfire she was using magic.

Undeterred, the alien Princess pressed on, especially when she realized the mage seemed particularly wary of her flamberge, almost as if she were afraid of being touched by it. While that wasn't particularly strange given that it was a sharp edged blade, it was odd that she didn't fear Zippy's fire, or the large quadruped himself, yet she feared the sword.

Distracted by her thoughts and the now reemerging pain in her midriff, though, Starfire's attacks slowed enough for the mage to duck. Placing her hand on the stone beneath their feet, she then quickly leapt backwards, out of the Tamaranean's reach. Intending to follow, the auburn-haired warrior nearly tripped upon realizing her feet wouldn't move. Her surprised gaze turned downward to discover the stone under her feet had transformed into some sort of clay that now held her feet in a vice grip. Kneeling down, she began to strike her bindings with the hilt of her sword, intent on rejoining the fight with as little delay as possible.

Meanwhile, Zippy came up behind the mage, clawed hand raised to slice her into pieces. Reacting instantly as she always seemed to, Cunning rolled under his attack and slid under his stomach. Placing her hands on his scaly hide, the large lizard was shot upward by a powerful blast of magical force.

Thinking she had him beat, the imposter then became alarmed when he curled his legs inward once more and began rotating just as he had done moments before. She dove out of the way just as he slammed into the ground, sending debris everywhere and forcing Starfire to shield her eyes from the cloud of dirt kicked up by the impact.

This was her chance!

Striking the clay binding her in place one final time, Starfire was released as it crumbled beneath the blow. She charged forward, jumping over Zippy as he righted himself once more inside the cloud of dirt, and used the dirt as a smokescreen to conceal her advance. Blade held over her head, she shot out of the cloud, surprising the imposter, and the Tamaranean landed in front of her, cleaving the mage in two as she had the Ophythian scout. ...Only for the image to flicker an vanish. Another illusion!

Eyes widening, Starfire turned on her heel and came face to face with 'Wisdom', appearing from within the dirt cloud with her hand outstretched to the shocked auburn-haired titan. A high pitched whistling filled the area as a small ball of magenta colored energy was condensed in her hand, its size fluctuating rapidly as it struggled to be free.

That couldn't be good.

The Tamaranean Princess raised her arms to guard her face just as the ball of energy exploded with insane force, shooting Starfire backwards as the high pitched whistling was replaced with a thunderous explosion. With a cry of pain, the emerald-eyed titan struck the ground over twenty feet from her previous position, her sword flying from her grasp to dig itself almost to the hilt in one of the pillars near the exit. She rolled a few more yards before finally coming to a stop.

Simultaneously trying to cough to rid her throat of dirt as she took in heavy breaths of air to sate her burning lungs, Starfire rolled onto her stomach, forcing herself to her hands and knees. This battle was truly not going how she had anticipated.

Looking up, she immediately noticed that Cunning looked none the worse for her attack, though that made sense given that most of the energy had expanded in Starfire's direction. But, why wasn't the mage tiring? It was clear that Zippy had been exhausted by his enlarged state, as he was no longer in it, the large silhouette no longer visible in the cloud of dirt that had yet to settle. But, the mage's cavalier appearance proved to the auburn-haired titan that she was far from finished.

She no longer had her weapon, and, it being so far from her, she doubted she would be able to reach it. That left Starfire's fists as her only sure weapon, and they would have to do. Her sword hadn't been particularly helpful up to that point anyway.

Standing, she entered a battle stance taught to her by her betrothed and waited for her opponent to make the first move.

'Wisdom' looked about to move to continue their fight when Brave suddenly appeared behind her out of the cloud of dirt! Starfire's eyes widened in response to this unexpected, yet not unwanted, turn of events.

The imposter turned, clearly not anticipating this either, only to be met with a fist to the gut, the force knocking the wind out of her. An uppercut, then a solid punch to the face, followed swiftly by a knee thrust to the chin, and Brave had landed more blows in a few seconds than Starfire and Zippy had combined in the last few minutes.

Cunning fell to the ground with a grunt of pain, Brave standing ready to continue the fight as Beast Boy then joined her, shamshirs drawn. When had they entered the room?

Sitting up on an elbow, the mage looked up at the reinforcements as she held a hand to her now bleeding nose. Gaze flicking from the two newest assailants, to Starfire, and then to Zippy as he, indeed in his small winged form once again, landed on Beast Boy's shoulder, the mage knew she was too greatly outnumbered.

Before any of them could react, she had dove off of the walkway, nearly disappearing into the darkness below, and took off, flying along the path and then up and through the door at the end of the room.

With a growl, bearing his teeth in anger, Beast Boy hurried forward to follow after her, his fists closing tightly around his two swords.

"No, Beast Boy. Let her go." Raven spoke up suddenly, and he stopped, all now stunned gazes turning upward. "She's already gone."

_TT_

_BB Centered POV:_

He couldn't believe she'd even suggested such a thing. 'Wisdom' had tricked them into thinking she was on their side for some still unknown purpose, and Raven wanted them to just let her go? Why?

"So what? We can still catch her if we hurry!" the changeling shot back, getting over his surprise quickly, his shock turning to irritation as he turned to continue on.

"No, stay. Starfire, Zippy, I need to speak with Beast Boy." the mage's voice echoed through the halls, the hard edge to that voice leaving no room for argument. After a moment's pause in which she glanced uncertainly at said green Titan, Starfire nodded and moved over to where her sword had apparently been impaled in one of the pillars. With little effort, she removed the blade from the new notch in the stone, and, sheathing it, she then left the room with Zippy perched on her shoulder.

Turning his gaze upward, Beast Boy's agitation was very clear when he spoke.

"I thought we were in a hurry. Can't this wait?" he asked restlessly.

"No because there is clearly something eating at you, and, forgive my bluntness, but you being distracted could get Starfire and Zippy killed." the mage stated seriously, though there was no accusal in her tone.

Beast Boy's gaze was then drawn back down when Brave, silent until this point, ...began to glow. She seemed unworried as the light consumed her, and the changeling found that the light, though looking as though it would possibly blind him, did not hurt his eyes in the slightest. In a few seconds, the light faded, and Brave's armored attire had been replaced with the blue robes Raven wore everyday. While silently relieved at the normalcy of it, the appearance of the real mage also sparked anger in Beast Boy.

"I thought it wasn't safe for you to be here." he said harshly, the accusation of lies coming across clearly in his tone.

"I'm not. I've momentarily copied my normal visage over Brave's, so I can speak with you directly." the mage returned in a calm monotone. "But, now that I _am_ here, why don't we cut to the chase. What's wrong, Beast Boy?" she asked folding her arms in her customary fashion, her stern eyes boring into his as though daring him to lie to her. This, of course, only ignited defiance in the changeling as well as more anger.

"Just like I told Brave, I'm mad that you've known I liked you and said nothing!" the green Titan reiterated his previously stated grievance, but the mage called him out on his bluff immediately.

"No, this is what you chose to focus on in order to shroud the real issue." she stated knowingly, the tone only proving to anger Beast Boy even more.

"Really? And how do you know that?" he snapped.

"Because you weren't angry when speaking to Timid, and that happened almost directly after Brave had to snap you out of those hallucinations."

"Now you're just defending yourself!" the changeling countered irately as he pointed an accusatory finger at her, his stubbornness finally starting to irritate Raven.

"No I'm not!" she shouted to match his volume level, though she was being completely honest instead of simply being stubborn like he. "I'm guarded, yes, but that's hardly news to you, Beast Boy! _Yes_, I knew how you felt, and _no_, I didn't do anything about it. However, that's because I didn't know _how_ to! It's not like this is a common occurrence for me." she yelled, and the green titan's mouth hung open slightly as he was unsure of how to respond to that, not that he had much time to before she continued anyway.

"But, that's not the point right now. What _is_ important is what happened during your fight with Lust. _That's_ the real issue here, and we both know it."

At this, it was clear that she was correct because Beast Boy's ears drooped a little as his right foot shifted backwards ever so slightly, almost as though he was afraid of the subject. Though, he quickly covered this with a look of ire and defiance. Raven was not dissuaded.

"What you had to do... I know it upset you, and I understand what you're going through." she supplied, a little quieter than before and Beast Boy scoffed incredulously.

"You understand?" he shot back with a huff. She didn't respond to his outburst. She simply stared, trying to contain her own growing choler as best she could at his obvious oversight. "How can you _possibly_ understand? How can you know what I'm going through here? Have you ever had to kill one of your closest friends?" he demanded to know. The mage shook her head lightly in response and was about to speak when he did so before she had the chance.

"Then how can you know what I'm going through?" the changeling shouted, infuriated by her apparent 'know-it-all' attitude, not noticing the mage's clenched fists.

"Because Trigon is my father!" she roared. That effectively silenced whatever come-back he had been planning as his mouth clamped shut immediately, eyes wide. "Ever since I was a child, living with pacifist monks, my dreams were filled with death. It was something I didn't understand but something that terrified me nonetheless. The dreams were partial memories from my oh-so-loving Satan of a father. Images of those he killed and the pleasure he took from doing so." she confessed, the green titan vaguely realizing these were things she had probably never revealed to anyone.

"When I was a _child_, I would wake up in tears over the things I dreamed and was then reprimanded harshly for allowing myself to feel! ...Sometimes after I wake up, even now, it feels as though _I'm_ the one who's done those things." she admitted, her voice now at a much more normal volume, but her tone still retained it's angry countenance.

Beast Boy was shocked to hear this statement and a little confused as well. That was... until he remembered the graveyard. The endless field of tombstones that filled Timid's realm. He had no doubt that the placement of that field carried great significance.

"I may not have killed a friend, but the horrors of death have never been a stranger to me. I swore early on that I would never kill any living being." As though ashamed, the empath then turned her gaze away from him, even the changeling's advanced hearing nearly missing her next comment. "...And then that scouting party..." Beast Boy's ears drooped again as he remembered those scouts all too well, one of which had hurt Starfire. ...Brave had been the one to kill two of them, he recalled grimly...

"I _do_ understand what you're going through." Raven reaffirmed honestly as she returned her violet gaze to his forest green one, and this time the changeling was the one to avert his eyes, shame twisting his stomach into an uncomfortable knot that he'd been thinking only of himself when he wasn't the only one who had problems.

Beyond Raven, what about Star? She was one of the kindest people he knew, and she abhorred violence. She had cut one of those guys in two... He couldn't imagine what she'd be feeling right about now, even if she was good at keeping her hurt hidden.

"And, Beast Boy." Raven continued, her tone soft yet serious, and he looked back up at her, officially feeling guilty for snapping at her and for the way he'd been acting.

"You did _not_ kill me." she stated adamantly, the word 'kill' causing an unpleasant nauseating sensation in his gut. "I'm fine. That thing may have looked like me, but it was only a warped imitation."

"...I know." the changeling sighed admittedly as he ran his fingers through his hair. "It's just..." He looked down once again as his thoughts turned back to that fight. He knew. He knew the 'Ravens' they were fighting weren't actually her, but they still _looked_ like her. Whenever he went to attack one, that fact was ever present in his mind. And, when he had... It had looked like it had been _Raven_ that he'd...

"You've never killed anyone before." Raven stated, finishing his incomplete thought. It wasn't a question. She knew.

Beast Boy looked back up, returning her stare for a moment before shaking his head in affirmation to the statement. He opened his mouth to speak when, without warning this time, the ground beneath their feet began to shake—had he just been too distracted to notice it?

A deep rumbling filled the room as very small, loose pieces of stone began to slide from their places in the walls and pillars where the damage of time had created small cracks, clouds of dust falling from the ceiling and walls. The tremors escalated in magnitude quickly, and the changeling struggled to retain his balance while the rumbling grew as well.

_Another_ earthquake? He could already tell it was worse than the second, but not as bad as the first. Though, that probably had something to do with their current location. Would it have been worse if they had been in the tunnels? The changeling turned his confused gaze to Raven to ask her about the earthquakes. It seemed strange that so many would suddenly be occurring. What was going on?

But, his questions died on his tongue upon noticing the mage's hands were raised to clasp the sides of her head as Brave's had been before, and her eyes were screwed shut as though fighting off a severe migraine, the deep creases in her brow telling him it was worse than the previous one.

"Raven, what's wrong?" a worried Beast Boy was barely able to ask as the ground's violent shaking continued. Noticing she was losing her balance as she battled the pain in her head, the changeling caught her teetering form, though he nearly lost his own balance in the process.

"Raven!" he hollered over the deep rumbling all around them as she was gradually able to hold less and less of her own weight, and pained groans began to escape her lips as her fingers clutched her temples harder, her skin turning even paler than normal.

A particularly strong tremor then shook the ground, knocking Beast Boy off balance, and he fell to a kneeling position, still steadying Raven as she did the same. Then, as he watched, the mage's visage shifted once more, back to the hoodless, leather-clad one of Brave, who seemed to be having as much trouble as Raven in winning whatever mental conflict she was engaged in.

Beast Boy's ears then caught a sound over the rumbling as it reverberated off of the stone walls, and a sinking feeling hit his stomach.

Voices, though definitely not human, echoed from within the tunnels the two groups had come from. The lizard men, Olympians he thought Affection called them, were coming, and quickly at that based on the rate the volume of the voices was increasing.

Cursing under his breath, the green Titan forced himself to his feet, lifting the still immobilized Brave as he did so. Nearly loosing his footing as the ground continued to shake, the changeling then forced his legs to carry them both forward and through the doorway Starfire and Zippy had vanished down.

The hallway was lit by the same, strange floating orbs that had been in the last room, allowing the green titan to see Starfire not too far ahead. ...She appeared to be carrying Zippy. Was the earthquake affecting him too?

"Star, we gotta' move!" Beast Boy shouted as he approached the pair, and the Tamaranean girl's worried gaze turned to him, and the mage in his arms, instantly. "Those lizard guys are here!" he elaborated over the quaking of the walls, and her eyes widened in surprise. Without further hesitation, she turned, and the two ran, carrying their companions along as the violent tremors continued.

* * *

_Sorry for the late update. Skyrim finally came out, so I've been busying myself with it. Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter, and please review._


	18. No More

Beast Boy was the first to enter the room, his gaze immediately drawn upward. He paused, wide-eyed, at the most bizarre staircase he had ever seen.

Spiraling up the cylindrical spire, it posed as the strangest maze he had ever seen. In some places, continuing up the steps would be blocked by a wall, and in other places, the ground would give way, the gap spanning too far to jump. In a few of these places, and easily the most bizarre of features, an iron fence or a rope would be floating within jumping distance in the empty space between the stairs, allowing a person to move from one end of the stairs to the other. Though, these mostly came with options as to where one could jump from the rope or iron fence.

Sudden footsteps behind the distracted changeling drew his attention, and he turned to see Brave hurriedly pass him.

"Climb!" she advised frantically, and he sprung into action as Starfire and a now flying Zippy passed him as well.

"How are we gonna find our way through this maze with these guys chasing us?" Beast Boy asked, his advanced hearing not necessary to pick up the sounds of the Ophythians in the tunnels behind them. It briefly occurred to him that someone really ought to teach them how to be stealthy, but that really wouldn't help their little team in this situation.

"Leave that to me!" the empath yelled back as she reached one of the drop offs. Still in her full run up the stairs, the rambo mage turned and leapt, catching herself on a floating iron fence and beginning a quick climb to the top. Once there, she stopped, scanning the maze above them.

Still standing on the stairs, Beast Boy and Starfire waited, occasionally glancing down to the tunnel entrance they had come through as the sounds of their enemies became progressively louder. Bouncing on his feet from his building anxiety, the green titan looked back up to the hoodless mage, who was tracing paths through the maze with her eyes. A few seconds, and she looked back down to start again, apparently having found a dead end.

That did not sate his panic.

His gaze shot back to the entrance as he could actually begin to make out voices instead of a general echo. They were close!

"Anything?" he asked frantically.

"Give me a minute!" Brave shot back as her gaze moved down once more, another dead end. "This isn't easy, you know!"

"We must hold them off." Starfire said suddenly as she passed the changeling, heading back down the steps to do just that. The changeling paused a moment, gaze lingering on Brave as she continued to scan the maze above them, before nodding and following the Tamaranean. If she needed time, they'd give it to her.

A few yards from the entrance, the two titans and Zippy stopped and readied themselves, the former two drawing their prospective weapons. The shouts grew louder and louder until, finally, an Ophythian barged through the hallway, followed swiftly by two more.

Starfire was the first to approach, swinging her blade in a wide arc. Alarmed, the lizard men jumped back, only for the first to be blasted in the face by a fireball, loving compliments of Zippy. With a shriek, it collapsed, rolling down a few stairs and knocking one of its fellows off his feet along the way. Pushing past the charred and flailing lizard man, another advanced on the group, easily a head taller than his comrades who were already around Cyborg's height! The mace he hefted could probably be characterized as a tree trunk or a lamp post given the mere mass of it.

If it was one thing Beast Boy had learned when facing large opponents like this Ophythian or Cyborg, it was that the chest was never a plausible area to attack, as most blows wouldn't do much. Instead, it was an 'always go for the head' kind of scenario.

The large reptilian raised his 'tree'-mace and brought the massive weapon down. Fortunately, Starfire still had her alien strength, because she was able to deflect it with her blade, the heap of steal instead crushing a few steps rather than say the changeling as a whole. Acting quickly, Beast Boy jumped over the Tamaranean warrior, kicking the foe in the face with both of his heels. The big enemy staggered a little, and the green titan was able to freely slash his face with one of his shamshirs, leaving a deep cut on what he could only guess was the left cheek of the lizard man's face—though it could have easily been a cheek bone or even part of the jaw for all he knew.

Zippy, seeming to catch on to the battle strategy, suddenly rammed into the side of the large lizard man's head just as the changeling was landing back on the ground. It didn't do much, but it drew he reptile's shocked attention just as the pseudodragon took in a breath and fired a ball of fire point blank. The Ophythian's face ignited briefly, and he loosed an alarmed screech, stumbling back against the wall and holding his scorched face with a clawed hand, dropping his massive mace on one of his unfortunate comrades.

Beast Boy grimaced, the idea of an open wound being burned far from a pleasant thought. His mind was quickly drawn back to the fight, however, when two more Ophythians took the big one's place.

The first to reach them slashed downward with an ax, and Beast Boy strafed to the side to avoid it. He was about to attack with one of his shamshirs, but Starfire's fist suddenly flew into the reptilian's face, sending him tumbling down the stairs. He tripped one of his fellows, who then hit the edge of the stairs, unable to catch himself on anything before he fell over the side and down into the black pit the changeling just noticed was below them.

The Ophythians on the stairs took a half step back from Starfire, fearing that alien strength of hers even more given their current battle arena; they wouldn't even have to be hit directly to have their lives ended, as had just been demonstrated. But, fear seemed less of an issue for the reptilian race, as they quickly overcame it, rushing in once more.

"I've got it!" Brave suddenly shouted down to them as Beast Boy struck one of them in the side of the head with the hilt of a sword and then shoved the staggering enemy down the stairs.

"Alright!" he cheered, beginning to back up as Zippy landed on his shoulder.. "Let's go, Star!" he yelled to the auburn haired titan as she impaled one of the Ophythians on her flamberge. Removing her blade, she sheathed it and turned. Bracing her hands on one of the steps, she then kicked the dying lizard man with both feet, sending him flying into his comrades and knocking them all back a few steps. A few unlucky combatants slid off of the stairs to fall into the seemingly endless pit below.

"Go!" Starfire ordered Beast Boy, and he nodded, running up the stairs to join Brave. The Tamaranean Princess did not follow right away. Instead, she turned, clapped her hands together over her head, and struck the stairs with all of her alien strength.

The damage was almost immediate, the stone crumbling beneath the force, and easily a dozen steps collapsed, falling into the black depths below.

The sound immediately drew Beast Boy's attention, and he turned to see the ground beneath the alien warrior give way! By some major stroke of luck, she somehow managed to turn enough while falling to grab the steps just behind her that had not collapsed.

"Star!" "Starfire!" the changeling and hoodless mage exclaimed respectively, Beast Boy turning to head back to her as Zippy took to the air and Brave prepared to jump back to where they were.

Their help wasn't needed as, almost effortlessly, the Tamaranean Princess pulled herself back up onto the steps. Ignoring the pain when the action pulled on her stomach wound.

"_Go_!" she reiterated as she stood straight once more and ran to join them. "This should keep them busy!" Nodding, the other titans complied. Though, for good measure, Zippy shot a fireball at the scrambling Ophythians at the other end of the gap, hitting one square in the face. With his version of a smirk, the little non-dragon turned and flew back to where Brave was continuing on.

Jumping over to land on the other side, the hoodless mage moved left on the floating grating. Gauging the distance to the stairs next to her, cut off from the first set by a whole series of them being missing, Brave took in a breath before leaping sideways off of the grating. She landed on one of the lower steps, making sure to lean herself away from the edge, though her momentum still sent her into the wall, her shoulder taking the hit. Turning, grateful that the armor she was wearing could more than compensate for the force, she prepared to assist the others should they need it.

Beast Boy being next, he followed the same procedure she had, only he aimed a little higher. Tumbling onto the steps above her, and he hit the wall with a grunt. When she knelt beside him, he nodded to her to tell her he was fine, his armor had served him just as well, even if nearly half of the sleeves were missing from the hallucinations given by Fear. Nodding mutely in response, Brave turned again to see Starfire land on the grating, but she wasn't alone. Apparently, some of the Ophythians in this squad had wings, and one such reptilian was right behind the unsuspecting Tamaranean Princess with his sword drawn.

Acting on instinct, Brave grabbed one of the throwing knives on Beast Boy's armor, spun, and threw it. The knife flew true, digging itself into the lizard man's shoulder between his armor pieces. With a screech, the Ophythian fell, though he quickly took to flying again to catch himself. Zippy flew after him, firing a series of fireballs that left the foe so distracted, he didn't notice the wall he was flying towards until he hit it full force. Unconscious, the winged lizard man fell onto the stairs just below him, and Zippy returned to the group just as Starfire landed next to Beast Boy and Brave.

And so they went. Climbing portions of segmented stairs, jumping from grating to stair, or grating to rope to stair, and just about any variation thinkable. Along the way they lost a good portion of their pursuers, thrown across the gap Starfire had made by the larger Ophythian to continue their pursuit. Most of them didn't seem to realize they were in a maze and thought they could cut the group off by going a different way. A few more of them could fly, but they were easily distracted by Zippy or dispatched by one of the companions when they got too close. The maze seemed endless, especially when they had to move down a few times in order to move forward, but they eventually reached the top, their exit coming in the form of a ladder.

Starfire quickly caught up to her allies as they scaled the ladder, joining them at the top. Turning, she grabbed the top rung and pulled, the fastenings giving way beneath her strength to release the ladder from the wall, and she then dropped it, ensuring that most of the Ophythians would not be able to follow them easily. Quickly scanning the area, she then moved over to one of the large stone statues in the area and, lifting it with relative ease, lodged it into the hole in the floor. For added security, she placed another statue on top of the first for good measure. That would keep their winged adversaries at bay for a time.

The rooms following the stair maze were nearly empty and rather plain other than a few banners that covered the walls and the continued theme of the statues depicting cloaked figures. That was, until the the room before their destination. It was still empty, but the ceiling was made entirely of glass, allowing for a view of the starry plane, many of said stars being red, that filled the space between Raven's mental realms. Through the glass at the far end of the room, an enormous glass dome could be seen, proving they had finally reached the final battle in this realm. In the hall, a series of more detailed statues on pedestals lined the walls, statues of monks, Beast Boy could only assume as they were also cloaked. Odd symbols brimmed the cloth, and they gave an odd ominous aura, like he feared they would smite him in an instant were he to do anything they deemed wrong.

Not giving their surroundings a second glance, Brave hurried forward to the large double doors at the end of the spacious hall, quickly alerting her companions that they should do the same. A dozen yards from their destination, however, the mage froze mid run, much to their surprise. Turning to her, Beast Boy noticed it almost looked like her brain had ceased to function. She fell to her knees, eyes wide in alarm.

"Brave!" Beast Boy exclaimed as he hurriedly knelt next to her, Starfire doing the same.

"What is wrong?" the worried Tamaranean asked, but their questions were answered when, without any audible warning again, tremors shook the ground beneath their feet.

What was going on?! It was like the earthquakes were assaulting Raven's mind directly. The changeling's attention was quickly drawn when he heard speech coming from the hoodless mage next to him, though it was strained and trembling.

"S-stop h-her..." was all she managed to grit out, and Beast Boy followed her gaze as she struggled to look to the large double doors about a dozen yards from them. Eyes steeling, he ran forward, drawing a sword as he went, and threw his shoulder into one of the doors. They didn't budge at first, so he planted his feet firmly on the ground and shoved with all he had. With a groan, the steel door finally began to shift on its hinges, though the tremors were making the task much more difficult. When the metal finally passed the threshold, Beast Boy let out a startled cry when flashing lights assaulted his vision, forcing him to cover his eyes, but he continued pushing until there was enough room for him to make it through.

Meanwhile, Brave had collapsed onto her side, a worried Starfire trying to call out to her with no success. Zippy watched, feeling helpless until, with a snarl, he flew after Beast Boy.

Still shielding his eyes from the light, that changeling managed to look into the large, dome-roofed room. It was similar to the others except the dome itself was made mostly of glass, allowing the same view as seen in the previous room. But it was what was inside the dome that drew the green titan's attention. A large, circular array had been etched into the ground at the center, nearly spanning the whole room in width, and a volley of sparks flew from just about every inch of it, filling the room with a blinding blue light. In the very center, sat a cloaked figure, glowing yellow symbols leaving no doubts as to who it was.

Beast Boy didn't know what it was, but he had a feeling the array was the cause of the earthquakes, almost like the activation of it was an attack on Raven's mind.

Without thinking, acting purely on his instincts, the changeling charged in with Zippy right behind him. As the pseudodragon shot a fireball at the possessed emotion seated in the middle of the array, only striking some sort of force field of black energy, the green titan slid to a stop in front of the array, still careful to guard his eyes as he used his shamshir to slice through the first few lines he reached.

The light that flooded the room forced him to shut his eyes completely while a few of the sparks hit him, numbing him almost instantly. The deafening sound of glass cracking filled the room, inciting a biting pain in the green titan's ears, and he clapped his hands over them with a cry of pain, hunching over to shield his face from the glass shards that rained down from above.

A strange sensation then washed over Beast Boy. He likened it to feeling as though he had been underwater for a long time and had finally returned to dry land. He didn't have time to ponder this as he was too concerned about what had just happened.

At first, he thought he had been too late, fear striking him as the thought that something irreparable had happened to Raven's mind entered his own. That was, until the earthquake stopped, allowing his ears some peace, though they were still ringing.

Alarmed, Beast Boy's eyes shot open, meeting the normal lighting—well, as normal as lighting could be when coming from floating, glowing orbs—of the room. Above, the glass dome had been partially shattered, though he had no idea why. His surprised gaze moved downward to where he had slashed through the array, the lines now broken where he'd cut them with his sword.

That actually worked? The only thing that stopped him from doing a victory dance was the fact that he was too busy glaring at the unstable version of Raven's embodied knowledge who sat in the middle of the room, a room whose floor was now checkered with shattered glass.

As Insane stood, a little too casually for Beast Boy's liking, Starfire and Brave quickly entered the room, the latter breathing heavily though otherwise appearing to be fine. Also glaring, the two readied their weapons as Zippy landed on Beast Boy's shoulder.

A sudden wind-like roar accompanied by strong gusts drew the changeling's attention, however, and he snapped around, immediately noticing and recognizing the black portal on the ground. His eyes widened, though, when the figure that summoned the portal arose from its depths. The words 'shock' or 'surprise' did not portray his feelings nearly adequately enough.

The figure was clad in a purple cloak.

"How-" he began to ask as Affection calmly stepped forward to stand next to a recovering Brave, her steely gaze locked on the tainted yellow emotion in the middle of the room.

"I used Brave as a conduit to transport myself here." she answered simply, though Beast Boy still harbored an ample amount of confusion, confusion that seemed shared by both Starfire and Zippy. "It's necessary." she added, her staring contest with the tainted emotion still underway.

"A few more, and we'd have the full family reunion!" cackled the unstable 'Knowledge', and the changeling turned back to her, just then noticing 'Wisdom' standing a ways behind her, looking perfectly calm as though this had been how she had expected things to play out all along.

"Well, with all the players here, why don't we get round two underway?" the umber-clad mage asked with a confident smirk. The changeling readied himself for the battle that was about to start, but he paused when he noticed Zippy out of the corner of his eye.

Was he crazy, or was the little lizard growing?

No, he definitely wasn't crazy—well, the jury was probably out on that, but Zippy was definitely growing! With each additional foot his friend gained in height, Beast Boy's eyes widened a little more, and, eventually, his little body, not so little anymore, was taller than Star! Not only was he taller, or rather simply larger in general, but he looked _freakin' awesome_! His scales now looked more like armor, and there was a huge club of spikes on the end of his tail!

Laughing drew the changeling's attention immediately, and his head snapped around to Cunning, the source of the amused cackle.

"You're not the only one who can grow. Let's see who does it better!" she exclaimed, an underlying danger evident in her tone. Though the comment made absolutely no sense at all to Beast Boy, he couldn't help but feel that things were about to take a turn for the worse.

He was proven correct when she actually started to grow, her features morphing into more of an unrecognizable brown glob. The only difference was, she didn't stop growing once she reached Zippy's new height. She kept going. And going. Every instant, he expected the growth to stop, only to be proven wrong in the next. When she was about twenty feet tall, five tendrils stretched from the glob of brown goo, a form once again beginning to solidify as the mush was gradually replaced with razor sharp scales. Standing on four massive legs with a tail that matched in proportion, the creature bore a thick scaly hide, and the five tendrils had become necks, each bearing a dragon-like head on the end.

_Duuude. . ._ was the only thought to go through Beast Boy's mind as he and the other companions took an involuntary step back, craning their necks just to look at the five heads that now towered above them. Each loosed a monstrous roar as the transformation completed, a roar Zippy returned, apparently unafraid of their daunting and deadly new foe. The deafening sound reverberated off the stone walls, causing the ground to rumble beneath the group's feet by the sheer volume of it, and the green Titan was forced to cover his ears lest permanent damage be done to them.

"Dude, I didn't know you could shapeshift, Raven!" the changeling exclaimed to the two 'Ravens' next to him once he knew he could be heard, lowering his hands once it was safe. They didn't respond right away, seeming uncertain.

"I can't." they both then replied in unison, and his eyes widened as a sinking feeling hit his gut. If Raven couldn't shapeshift, then why could Wisdom's tainted form? She was still part of Raven. . . right? So, she should only be able to do things Raven herself could.

He didn't have time to ponder this further as one of the five heads of the hydra reared back and then, with a hiss, spit a strange purple substance at Zippy. Zippy in turn, standing so close to Starfire and Brave—Affection strangely nowhere in sight—shielded them with his armored body, taking the hit without so much as a growl of pain.

Beast Boy saw the purple substance hit the armor with a slap, the goo sizzling slightly, but he was then pushed to the side, loosing an alarmed shriek when what looked like a blast of condensed black smoke flew past his head.

Affection, the one who had moved him out of the way, stood beside the changeling, her stern gaze in the direction the blast had come from. It was then Beast Boy remembered there was more than one enemy in this fight, and he turned to see the reptilian, yellow-clad mage grinning at them in a way he could only describe as crazy.

He didn't like that grin. It marred Raven's features in a way that unsettled his stomach. She shouldn't look like that. She should be frowning at him, displeased in one way or another from some insane prank he had just pulled in an attempt to get her to smile. But, that grin she wore now. . .

It scared him far more than any scowl ever could.

_TT_

_Rorden Thalmus Centered POV:_

The hot summer sun beat upon the trees, streaming through to the few tents that rested within the forest's heart. Organizing the search had proven difficult at best. They had attempted to block the mage into a section of the forest several times, but she had slipped through the net in every instance.

Rorden stood in the largest tent, staring down at a map of the area. Lines were traced through the forested area in an estimation of the mage's path. There was no discernible pattern, but he hadn't expected one. She was simply trying to buy time, a hopeless endeavor in the end. They'd been out there for weeks, and she was likely on the edge of her rope exhaustion-wise.

The tent flap behind Rorden opened with a barely audible ruffling of fabric, informing the monarch that he was no longer alone. A moment more to study the map in an attempt to predict the mage's next moves and the monarch turned. An Acolyte had returned with the current progress report.

"Sir, I regret to inform you that we are no closer to locating the mage, and the solstice is drawing nearer with each passing day." the Acolyte supplied quickly, fear coloring his tone.

Truth. Rorden valued the truth. They were no closer to finding the mage. Yes, that was true. She was clever, and now it seemed she had assistance. Two supers from the League. They had killed many of his Mistress's soldiers and then evaded capture on numerous occasions. The Justice League's tracker team was proving a formidable foe in this game of cat and mouse.

But he wasn't worried.

A smile touched his lips.

"There is no need to fear." was Rorden's confident reply, the acolyte growing understandably confused. "We are not required to have the mage in our possession until the solstice is nearly upon us. If we have yet to capture her at that time, I have set a backup plan into motion." With that, he turned back to the map.

_TT_

_BB Centered POV:_

The next thing the changeling knew, Affection had charged past him wielding a throwing knife and the larger knife that had been previously sheathed on his back. Still appearing far too calm and wearing that grin that terrified Beast Boy for its unnaturalness, Insane thrust her hand forward, and a black crystal spike materialized in the air in front of her palm, shooting towards the purple-clad mage. She froze in her advance and brought her weapons to bear, deflecting the spike, but the shear force of the crystal's impact pushed her back a step.

The barrage continued, Insane launching spike after spike and Affection, each one knocking her back a step when she deflected it. After one such blow, her guard was left particularly open, but that was when Beast Boy decided to make his entry into the fight, cutting the next crystal in half.

Taking the extra time this gave her, Affection threw the throwing knife in her hand, the weapon whistling past Beast Boy's head and sailing straight for Insane. A simple raise of her hand, and the throwing knife was stopped dead, shrouded in black energy, and the changeling's eyes widened the split second before it was flung back at them at twice the speed.

Animal instincts kicking in drove Beast Boy to deflect the projectile before he'd really registered it was coming. Animal instincts! He had them back! As if to answer his internal question, glass crunched underneath his foot when he shifted it, and he looked up.

The cracks in the dome were still slowly spreading, snaking their way through the glass. Was the damage somehow freeing some of their locked powers?

When Affection charged past him, Beast Boy was drawn back to the fight, the mage only wielding a knife now as she approached Insane. As another crystal was shot, the purple-clad mage disappeared just as it reached her and reappeared in front of the possessed mage, landing a double heel kick to the face.

Meanwhile Starfire, Brave, and Zippy faced off against the monstrous Hydra. Having already sensed the return of some of her powers, a feeling more than welcome after so long without them, Starfire took to the air as Brave and Zippy charged in for a ground assault.

A quick intake of air, and Zippy launched a fireball at the mass of five slithering heads, heads that seemed to refuse to stand still for even a moment. The mass of each one being as large as they were, the heads were barely able to avoid the massive ball of flame, but they retaliated by spitting more of the purple goo at the armored dragon. The globs hit him with another slap, sizzling once more as they slowly ate at his armor.

Up above, Starfire avoided the lunge of one of the heads and brought her sword down, slicing through the thick hide with little effort. The head fell to the ground with a crash, and she began to cheer internally.

That was, until two more heads sprouted from where the neck had been severed! Eyes widening in surprise, she hadn't the time to react before one of them slammed into her, sending her crashing through the glass dome over a dozen feet away.

Down bellow, Brave flipped over the lunge of a head, slashing it as it passed, and then jumped again to avoid another head's attack. Running up its neck, she jumped off to avoid the acidic purple substance spit at her and landed on a third head as it lunged. Perched on its nose, she smirked as it glared at her before driving her wrist blade through its right eye.

An agonized screech flew from its mouth as it shook, throwing the mage off, only to be caught by Starfire, having flown back inside the dome. As she landed to put the mage down, Zippy fired a series of fireballs at the six heads above them, two of them making contact while the others made more holes in the glass overhead.

With a hiss, the Hydra lifted one of its large clawed feet and stomped down on the armored dragon. Zippy held his ground, and though he was heavily armored, the force pushing down on him was threatening to crush him, his legs straining to hold himself up. Hastily, Brave ran over to him and stabbed the hydra's foot with both wrist blades. It shrieked again as it drew the appendage back, and Zippy once again used his armor plating as a defense against the purple goo that was spat at them, shielding the hoodless mage.

He then looked to a crouching Brave while loosing a low, guttural sound. Knowing he was thanking her, she the empath gave a smile and clapped a hand on his large shoulder as if to say 'anytime'. Turning, she then addressed their other ally.

"Starfire, don't cut off the heads! Just damage them!" she then informed and the Tamaranean Princess who nodded before taking to the air once more.

Meanwhile, Affection and Beast Boy were having trouble staying close enough to Insane to deal any damage. She avoided the purple-clad mage's attacks for a few seconds before tapping her shoulder, sending the empath flying back, though she managed to skid to a halt on her feet.

Laughing in a creepily hysterical way, Insane then clapped both hands onto the tiled floor, and sparks shot forward through the ground before it burst as a wall of enormous spikes erupted from within, the migrating eruptions aiming for Affection. Now it was Beast Boy's turn to push her out of the way just in time. The wall of spikes then came dangerously close to impaling the hydra form of Cunning, though her ally seemed not to care.

"Watch it!" the hydra hissed, the imposter's voice audible as a dangerous undertone, but Insane didn't even seem to hear her. She just continued laughing hysterically as she continued the barrage on her foes.

Extending her hand, Affection put up a barrier to block the series of crystals that the yellow-clad mage had thrown their way. Lowering the barrier, the empath took to the air, avoiding more spikes with agile aerial movements even the changeling struggled to follow.

Beast Boy watched with owlish eyes as they continued to fight, Affection coming close a few times to dealing a blow to her yellow-clad counterpart, and he couldn't help but think how far he was out of his league without his shifting abilities. Even with the apparent return of some of their abilities, only his instincts and reflexes had been improved. He couldn't even turn into any _tiny_ animals. After training so long to perfect his shapeshifting skills, now that he couldn't shift, it felt as though he was going into every fight with an enormous handicap.

But, when had that ever stopped him before?

With a short growl, he tightened his grip on his shamshirs and charged in. Seeing Affction was trying to get in close, he decided to help with this tactic. It was much harder to keep two enemies at bay. As such, they gradually grew closer and closer to their target, occasionally getting a hit in as the yellow-clad mage began sporting more and more sword and knife cuts.

As they moved in once more, she suddenly blasted the ground with her black smoke, kicking up a dirt cloud that obscured her from their vision. They paused, eyes darting around for any glimpse of her from within. Because of the dirt assaulting his senses, Beast Boy didn't notice the attack in time to warn Affection.

A hand shot out from the dirt cloud, gripping the purple-clad mage's temple before she could react, and a pained scream from the mage tore through the air. In a matter of seconds, the empath had turned ghostly pale, the veins of her face and neck bulging as though blood was attempting to flood to the area to stop an attack of some sort.

With a smirk, her injuries now healed, Insane released the mage, Affection collapsing unconscious, maybe worse, to the ground as the knife fell limp from her hand.

Beast Boy's iris's constricted as his own pulse reverberated inside his head. With an enraged scream he charged, a feral rage increasing his speed, and he reached the possessed mage in less than two seconds. She, in mid-turn, jumped back to avoid his downward slash, and then jumped back again to dodge the horizontal arc of his second blade that followed her.

Somehow, she managed to avoid the series of quick slashes, and, in his rage, Beast Boy's guard was left open. Insane tapped his gut, and he was pushed back a couple of feet. Somehow remaining standing, he was then forced on the defensive when she began shooting more of the black crystal spikes at him. What was worse, her attacks were pushing him farther and farther back. It would now be _very_ difficult to reach her again, especially since he couldn't fly.

Beast Boy's thoughts were interrupted when the unstable mage suddenly shot a blast of that black smoke at him. He slashed through the blast as he had the spikes, but his blade merely went through it. The blast collided full force with his chest, knocking the wind out of him and pushing him back a step. Defenses broken, the next was free to hit him as well. The shoulder, the gut, the head. Each blow pushed him back, and the final disarmed him and knocked him off of his feet.

Landing with a grunt, Beast Boy could only stare up at the ceiling for a few seconds in a dazed haze, his eyes having difficulty focusing after the blow to the head. With a cough, he rolled over, shakily pushing himself up to his hands and knees. Picking up one of his dropped swords as he shook his head in an attempt to get his brain to focus, he looked up to the yellow-clad mage. . . as she struck the ground and sparks shot through the ground towards him.

Animal instincts kicking in again, the changeling's eyes widened as he moved back a step, raising his shamshir as the wall of spikes, smaller than before, erupted forward once more. In a last ditch effort, he slashed with the sword. . . but the blade only managed to dig in a few inches. A scream of pain escaped as the spikes drove into him, skewering him through the left shoulder and the left side of his abdomen.

Though the spikes held him up, he wished nothing more than to collapse in a heap in the hopes it would ease some of the pain. But, attempting to do so only ignited more pain in these two newest of injuries as it put too much weight on them. Insides wrenching, Beast Boy gagged, blood spilling from his mouth to land on the black spikes that had impaled him. That couldn't be good. . .

When sparks snaked their way up the spikes and into his wounds, he almost felt relieved when the pain was numbed, but that numbing sensation quickly became a new pain all its own. Groaning as the pain increased, he shakily removed the sword from where it was dug into the crystal and struck again. Not good enough! Only a few more inches deep! He was growing too weak to put in enough force to cut through them entirely.

Face contorted in pain, he repeated the process nonetheless, but he missed the mark. As each crystal was roughly seven inches in diameter where he was trying to cut through, he would have tried to cut closer to himself where the spikes were thinner. But, the numbness was quickly spreading throughout his whole body, lowering his coordination drastically. He doubted he'd be able to hit the same spot twice, let alone three times.

The smirk for the mentally unstable still in place, Insane held up a hand up to the fallen Affection, the latter being engulfed in Raven's black energy. She was then lifted over the tainted emotion's head, and with a simple forward gesture, was flying through the air without her own volition towards the raging battle of the hydra, 'Wisdom'.

With an alarmed eep, a battling Starfire was hit dead on by the soaring mage, but Affection vanished before they even hit the ground, dissolving into thin air. Brave's attention snapped to where the mage had been thrown from, but her breathing hitched when she saw their impaled teammate.

"Beast Bo – AAH!" she screamed when a hydra head slammed into her, throwing her back a couple of feet. Hearing a hissing coming from above, the hoodless mage rolled just as the head struck again, its snout crushing the tiles and coming up bleeding from the impact. Rolling onto her knees, Brave slashed quickly with a wrist blade. The head reared back with a screeched of pain, blood spraying from the new gash on its already bloodied snout, and the rambo mage took this opportunity to make a run for the other battle.

As she ran, two heads, the first and a new arrival, attacked from behind, knowing two of their foes would be downed if Beast Boy fell too. Their efforts were thwarted when Zippy, spiraling through the air, slammed into one and sent it colliding forcefully with the other. Uncoiling himself, the armored dragon then clamped on to the healthier one's neck with his powerful jaws, using his claws as well to cling to the giant enemy.

Another screech of pain, and the head shook in an attempt to get the large quadruped off, but his grip held true. A heavy clubbed tail was then introduced to the same head's face, inciting an outraged roar as the other head reared back. Almost as if by design, Zippy released his hold as more purple goo was spat, only it hit the hydra head instead of its intended target. More screeches of pain and rage sounded as the armored dragon landed on the ground unharmed. The now heavily injured hydra head was all but useless as the acidic substance began eating away at its scales.

"Thank's Zippy!" Brave imparted her gratitude as she ran past him, and he returned his version of a smirk—which was much more intimidating in this new form. Almost as an after thought, he then fired a fireball upward, a nearly amused look coming to him as he watched the heads scurry to avoid the blast, the injured nearly failing to do so.

Attention turning forward, Brave loosed an angry snarl as she charged toward Knowledge. Creating two clones, the real mage then broke off from the run and made a b-line for Beast Boy.

To flank their opponent, one clone teleported behind her in a drop kick, one Knowledge simply ducked to avoid. The second Brave ducked to avoid it as well, and began throwing a series of punches. Insane blocked the first few, but hand-to-hand was not her specialty. A punch to the face and then a follow-up hit to the gut, and it looked like the clones held the upper hand until the yellow-clad mage tapped her on the shoulder. The hoodless mage was pushed to the side a couple of feet by an invisible impact, and then the two clones were forced to avoid the barrage of black crystal spikes shot their way.

Meanwhile, picking up the second shamshir from where it had been tossed aside by the wall of spikes, the real Brave hurried over to the changeling, weapon raised over her head. The green titan moved his arms out of the way, allowing the mage a clear shot to slice through the crystals. Her strength not nearly as waned as his, she was able to cleave clean through them both, and Beast Boy collapsed with a cry of pain.

Quickly kneeling, Brave caught him before he had landed on the tips of the spikes that stuck out of his back. His troubles were not over though, as they continued to spark, but he had apparently noticed this. Clutching both, he didn't hesitate before yanking them out.

Under normal circumstances, one would need to leave the spikes in to avoid blood loss, but that could do more harm than good in this case. Since the particular ability was aimed toward long term damage, when the spikes met blood, they would react, sending off the sparks that would magically cause nerve damage. Even with his partly returned regenerative capabilities, already at work to stop the bleeding, Brave wasn't sure if the two wounds Beast Boy had just received would ever heal completely. With a look of ire, he tossed the two stakes aside, still sparking as his blood remained on them. Brave's gaze then moved to their foe.

Knowledge. It could be a very dangerous thing. It was not bound by the same strict morals that Raven bore. She would never use the technique just used, or many of the others this particular emotional embodiment possessed. She would never siphon the life from another to heal herself, nor would she use magically infused spikes that could kill just as easily as they could permanently maim.

What was worse, these particular skills were now being used against her friends, people who were, for all intents and purposes, her family. They had taken her in, accepted her, even after they learned the truth of her lineage. Raven would never even use these abilities against criminals, not even the particularly disturbed ones such as Slade.

And now Beast Boy had sustained an injury that could possibly impair the movement of his left arm permanently, even if to a smaller degree given his ability to regenerate.

They shouldn't even be there! This was _her_ fight! _Her_ problem to solve! But, Starfire had received many wounds of her own. She'd been impaled by the spike of a pillar, her hands had been rendered useless as they were nearly turned to ash, and now she bore a large gash on her stomach that was still healing. And Beast Boy, though not having as many severe injuries, had not been without his own troubles. His half missing sleeves could attest to that, the result of visions of the Beast, imparted on him by Fear. And now this.

It was always _they_ who received the most severe wounds while _she_ came out nearly scathe free.

No! She would not accept that!

Gently setting Beast Boy down, Brave stood, fists clenched tightly at her sides. Dark energy radiated from her, and, as the changeling watched, a blue cloak materialized over her shoulders, leather boots replaced with those Raven wore and a matching blue cowl drawn low to shadow the mage's face.

Raven! She had essentially taken over Brave, and, while this would make it incredibly dangerous for her as well as impossible for her to sense anything outside of her mind, she would not sit by and watch anymore!

Ahead, the two clones of Brave continued to face off against Knowledge, attempting to stay in close, though this proved impossible at times. Affection had been on the right course of action before. Close combat. If one could get in close enough, Knowledge would be at a disadvantage, as most of her skills were ranged and her hand-to-hand outright sucked. But, as Affection's close-combat abilities were not that much greater, the possessed mage had managed to gain the necessary distance needed too many times.

But, Raven herself was not bound by the same limitations. Long range or short range, she was more than formidable.

Holding her hand out to some of the larger spikes that had nearly impaled the hydra, she chanted her mantra internally, and several were encased in a sheet of black. Thrusting her arm upwards, the spikes broke from the ground and followed the movement, breaking through the already damaged and partially shattered glass. Gathering energy in her other fist, she then punched the air and a blast of fire followed the spikes upward. Upon reaching the fractured glass, the fire expanded violently, shattering all that remained of the dome and freeing the companions' powers in their entirety.

It was time to even the playing field!

All fighting ceased when this happened, every pair of eyes moving upward before being shielded from the rain of glass shards by their respective arms or by simply looking down. It was Raven who recovered first as she lowered the protective dome-like shield around the still grounded Beast Boy.

"Knowledge!" she bellowed, and the three mages ahead turned to face her. With a nod, the two Braves turned and ran for where Starfire and Zippy where resuming their battle with Wisdom's imposter, Starfire now adding her starbolts to the fray. A confused Insane let them go, simply watching as they went before turning back to her new enemy. With a snarl, Raven then pulled her fist back and moved to strike the ground while the alarmed yellow-clad mage moved to strafe to the side.

Meanwhile, the two Brave clones, ran up behind Cunning, using the distracted hydra's tail as a ramp to run up along her spine before digging both of their wrist blades, four in total, into her back. Roaring in pain, three of the six heads turned to the two combat mages and left the current battle with Starfire and Zippy to attack. Knowing the chance for self-inflicted damage was too great, the heads charged in for physical assaults rather than spitting more of the acidic substance.

As they lunged, the two Braves bounded upward, avoiding each attack as they bounced from one neck to the other until they both leapt into the air, all three heads going in for what seemed like an easy kill.

Raven's fist about to make contact with the ground, Insane moving to avoid the oncoming attack, and three hydra heads snapping towards the two Brave clones. Three simultaneous instants in time. . . and two of them anticipated results of the first.

With a smirk, Raven vanished just before her fist struck, instead appearing at an angle 90 degrees off from where the enemy had expected her. The mage's fist made contact with the tiled floor, and the same wall of spikes Insane had been previously using was now shooting towards her as she now headed straight for it in her previous attempt to dodge! Extending a hand, the possessed mage encased one of the tiles in black energy and pulled it to her. The result was that she was knocked out of the way of the spikes just as they passed, though they still managed to leave gashes in her right arm and side as she moved.

But, it was quickly obvious that she had not been Raven's only target as the spikes, growing in size, rapidly drew closer to Cunning. As the Hydra heads lunged, the two Braves suddenly dissolved into smoke, revealing their actions to be a diversion, but there was not enough time to react to this. Due to having such a large girth, the hydra was not able to move out of the way. The spikes were merciless, driving through her scaled hide as though it were simply a thin sheet of paper, and Cunning roared in agony as she was impaled in seven different places!

_This_ had been the expected outcome of her attack, though getting both of them would have certainly been a bonus. As the umber-clad mage had no choice but to revert back to normal, the action shattering the spikes and preventing further damage, Insane's owl eyed expression then snapped to the side just before Raven's fist made contact with her face, throwing the yellow-clad mage to the ground.

When Cunning moved to help her unorthodox ally, she found the blade of a sword to her throat, Starfire standing behind her as Zippy growled threateningly from beside them. Already greatly injured, she wouldn't be going anywhere.

Seemingly unperturbed by anything that had just happened, Insane thrust a hand out, hitting Raven in the gut with a blast of black smoke, the concussive damage knocking the wind out of her and pushing her back a couple of feet. Rolling to land in a kneeling position, the real empath then extended her hands out to the sides.

"Azarath metrion _zinthos_!" she shouted her mantra, and every shard of shattered glass in the room was encased in black energy and lifted. Everyone watched, astonished, as the shards surrounded Insane in a dome of daggers, for all intents and purposes. When Raven clapped her hands together, the shards converged on their target while avoiding all others, and the possessed mage just about vanished behind the sheet of shimmering weapons.

Raven stood as the glass collided and landed in a pile where her foe had been, pushing aside thoughts of her growing migraine when Insane then warped out of the floor right in front of her via a black dimensional portal. The possessed mage, now sporting a decent number of cuts and gashes from the glass and still somehow retaining her smirk, had her hand extended as though to attempt doing to Raven what she had to Affection.

Anticipating this, the demoness diverted the attack by striking the bottom of her wrist, sending the assault above her head. Hand closing around her wrist, Raven then struck Knowledge's shoulder, keeping the arm useless in a lock by holding it straight. Sliding her foot behind the partially subdued mage's own, she then tripped her, sending the yellow-clad counterpart to her knees. Raising her fist, the appendage being engulfed in black energy, it seemed as if Raven was about to win.

But, Knowledge would not be defeated so easily. Extending her free hand, an action that mirrored the position of her other arm, a spherical wave of energy shot from her, throwing her assailant back a dozen feet as well as pushing the still healing Beast Boy back a few.

That was not what he needed, as the action put strain on his wounds. His regeneration, it seemed, was slow to return to him, leaving the injuries exposed and excruciating.

When he was able to look up through the growing daze in his vision and mind, he noticed Insane was cackling as she wobbly got to her feet, black energy emanating from her like smoke. Holding her hands out before her as if holding a ball, the energy was then sucked in to it, more being added from the air around her. A small ball of black energy, swirling violently as energy kept pouring into it, formed in the space between her hands.

"What are you doing?! Cunning demanded irately from off to the side, the group of three having been apparently unaffected by the last attack save for the small gust of wind that washed over them.

Coughing as the last blow had knocked the wind out of her, Raven too looked up, but she froze when she saw what the yellow-clad mage was doing. Eyes widening, she then looked to Beast Boy with one simple thought a dozen yards away.

He had no defense.

Beast Boy's attention was drawn when a distracted Starfire let out a cry of pain, Cunning having elbowed the healing gash on her stomach. The Tamaranean's blade fell as she stumbled, and the umber-clad mage then took to the air, disappearing into the night beyond the destroyed dome.

Still sporting a grin of the mentally unstable, Insane then extended her arms to the side. The ball of energy expanded, releasing the energy she had gathered, all of it, in a single blast.

The result was close to what one might expect from a large bomb going off, only the explosion was black. Zippy, still large and heavily armored, curled around Starfire to shield the Tamaranean princess from the assault. His hide being as thick as it was, the energy seemed only able to char it.

Before Beast Boy had even registered the explosion had gone off, Raven had warped in front of him, her back to the explosion as she attempted to protect them both behind a shield of energy. But, when the blast hit, the shield cracked, and Raven's visage flickered back to that of Brave's. A scream of agony flew from her as the waves of energy broke through the shield and struck her, the force of the blow pushing her forward a few inches.

"No!" the wounded changeling attempted to shout, but the intense heat suddenly assaulting him burned the oxygen from his lungs and prevented him from doing so. Clenching her fists and jaw, Brave shoved the pain aside as she recreated the shield as best she could, pushing herself to the very limits of her abilities.

It was the longest few seconds Beast Boy could ever remember. When the blast finally died from existence only seconds after having been birthed, Brave's arms fell limp to her sides as the shied flickered out of existence.

Almost as if in slow motion, she then fell, collapsing unconscious next to the changeling.

* * *

_Please review._


	19. Not Normal

A sudden burst of magic immediately drew the attentions of the two energy-wielders, and their heads snapped over to Raven as she fell forward from her seated position. Jumping into action, they ran over to the mage as she struggled to push herself up onto her hands and knees, a hand, much paler than usual, pressed to her temple as she took in shallow breaths.

"What's wrong?" Kate asked the mage who was even more fatigued than before, how that was even possible, the brunette had no idea.

"It's nothing." Raven dismissed, her voice quiet from exhaustion. "But the enemy would have felt that." she continued, referring to the burst of magic. Grimly, Kate noted she was correct, sensing a large number of life-forces already heading their way a few miles in the distance—how were they always so quick to respond? Concern filled her at that, as it was clear Raven could hardly stand, let alone flee or, even less possible, fight. Very quickly, they had learned the troubles of fleeing all at once, hence the diversions. They simply couldn't move fast enough while helping the empath to escape their pursuers.

But, now she couldn't go on her own.

"Take her and get some distance from here." Arin suddenly said as he turned, making to leave the area. Eyes widening in shock, Kate wheeled around to face him.

"What?!" she demanded. He couldn't possibly be thinking what she thought he was. It was suicide to head out there alone! But. . . the look on his face left little uncertainty in her mind as to his intentions. "You can't be serious! There's too many!" she insisted. There was no way he could take them on by himself! They were nearly getting killed when it was the _two_ of them fighting, each escape becoming narrower and narrower!

"I'm just going to buy a little time. If I attack them, I can catch them off guard." the stoic combat specialist supplied quickly, hefting one of the curved swords he had 'commandeered' from one of their foes. When Kate opened her mouth to object once more, he cut her off, not something he did often.

"There's no time to argue!" he shot harshly, and she flinched visibly; he was right. His plan made sense. He was by far faster than she was. He would be able to lose their pursuers easier than Kate would. She _knew_ that. . . but still. . . Expression softening as he no doubt understood her hesitations, Arin continued. "Go. I'll catch up." he assured her, and her fists clenched, green eyes turned down.

". . .You'd better." was her grudging response as she turned to the silently observing Raven and wrapped her arm around her neck to help the weary titan stand. "And be careful!" Kate all but demanded over her shoulder. Arin loosed a short laugh and smiled, barely visible with only the light of the stars to go by, but enough to instill a little confidence to his companion.

"When am I not?" he questioned honestly, and Kate gave a small laugh of her own.

"Touche." was the light response. With that, Arin gave a curt nod, and he was gone, disappearing into the forest. As she watched him go, though, Kate's smile faded, some of the confidence waning.

"Please be careful." she whispered, even though he was too far away to hear. She breathed deep to try and push down the fear boiling up in her stomach, twisting her insides into a nauseating knot.

". . .I'm sorry." the sudden voice caught the brunette unawares, and surprised green eyes turned to the side. Raven wasn't looking at her, instead focusing on nothing of any significance on the ground before her. "This is all my doing. . . .I never meant for any of this to happen." the younger girl whispered with a sigh, guilt poking through her monotone. Right, she was an empath. She could probably sense Kate's ample worry.

"No." the brunette answered as she turned, leading the exhausted mage northeast at a pace that was as quick as she could manage. "We agreed to help. As soon as we got here, we knew what we'd be getting ourselves into. We could sense the number of enemies after you."

"But, it was still my mistakes that led you both here." Raven supplied honestly, and, while that _was_ true, Kate bore no ill will toward her. She'd already seen many things in her short 23 years of life, a great deal of them not to be brought up in casual conversations. Many things were often out of the control of those involved, and choices were made in an instant. It was only a time afterward that it would become clear if the choice made was for the better or worse.

"We all make mistakes." the brunette shrugged lightly, brushing off the titan's unnecessary apology. "But, we can't change what's already happened. We just have to learn from it and move forward. Dwelling on it won't solve anything." Honestly speaking, it wasn't really Arin's chance of survival that had Kate concerned. She _was_, but. . . Whenever they were separated, bad things tended to happen, coincidence or not.

It was what lied inside of him that worried Kate. Could he control it, she found herself wondering?

A series of brief images flashed through her mind. A group of thugs. The body of a young super, no older than eight. ...Arin, dark skin and black eyes like fire as he ruthlessly tore the thugs apart.

. . .No, it wasn't his survival she feared for most.

* * *

Arin jumped from one tree branch to the next, making good time through the forest until he came to a cliffside, maybe twenty feet between it and the forest's outer border. There, not too far ahead. A large troop of Ophythian soldiers, no doubt the ones sent to find them as he could sense no others around, ran along the edge, their path clear of trees that would slow them down. They didn't have their weapons drawn, probably waiting until they were closer to their enemy's last known position to encumber their running pace.

They didn't see the figure in the trees a few yards in front of them. This was his chance.

Fists and jaw clenching, Arin hunched low on the tree limb as he focused solely on his own pulse reverberating inside his head, a deep base that awakened a normally dormant power he kept hidden. Energy flooded his limbs, strengthening them, quickening them. Pupils constricted, their black then proceeding to seep through his irises like ink through water. He could feel his teeth sharpening as well, fangs to articulate the feral transformation(1).

Limbs shaking from the excess energy flowing to them, Arin bent his knees as he tipped forward, leaping from the tree branch with a beastial snarl. Drawing the curved sword from his back, Arin landed in front of the first Ophythian with a downward slash. Arm having been raised on instinct to defend, the staggered reptilian man didn't have time to respond before the blade was then driven through his gut.

Withdrawing the sword, Arin leapt back to avoid a small volley of arrows fired at him from the group's archers a few yards back and shifted direction almost instantly, drawing in on the first archer and cutting his bow in two as he attempted to prepare the next arrow. Catching the clawed hand that then came forward, the now feralized energy-wielder jumped into a spinning rotation and drove both of his heels into the lizard man's face.

Bringing his sword up while still rotating in the air, Arin braced the flat edge against his free hand, the blade now defending his chest just as a large ax came down, courtesy of another fast-acting Ophythian warrior. The combat specialist was thrown back a couple of feet by the blow, but his newly heightened reflexes let him catch himself before hitting the ground. Landing on his free hand, he then pushed off, continuing the motion backwards and landing on his feet a few yards from the new attacker.

With a growl, baring his newly acquired fangs, Arin charged forward with much greater speed than he had displayed during any previous fight. As the Ophythian brought his ax down once more to cut his foe in two, the energy wielder, being smaller than his enemy, was able to roll beneath the attack and slide behind him. Squaring his footing, Arin then thrust his curved sword upward, driving it through the lizard man's back, the action met with an agonized howl of sorts.

A snarl of pain escaped Arin when an arrow slashed through the right shoulder of his shirt, leaving a deep gash in the skin beneath—the Ohythian archer who had shot the arrow didn't even seem to care that he had thus hit his ally in the back, probably because said ally was already mortally wounded. Grunting, Arin removed his sword, the soldier collapsing, and turned on his heel as he removed four ninja stars from their place underneath the back of his shirt. Charging energy in them quickly, he threw them at the group of lizard men approaching, archer included.

Quickly dashing to the side, only one projectile managed to hit a target directly, blasting the soldier back with a new gaping hole in his armor and wounds beneath to match. The others left cuts and scorch marks on their targets from the heat of the energy stored in them.

Tensing his legs, Arin charged forward once more and threw his foot at the first foe he reached. The Ophythian, one he vaguely recognized as having fought before that night, caught the attack and threw the human, much smaller than he.

Skidding, Arin went over the edge of the cliffside just as he drove his sword into the ground, the blade the only reason he wasn't plummeting into the river roaring a hundred feet below.

As he was about to climb back up, a clawed hand then lifted him by the front of his shirt, bringing him face to face with the same Ophythian as before, the kneeling lizard man pulling back his sword to strike. But, when Arin removed his own blade from the stone and slashed his thigh, the reptilian soldier released him with an alarmed shriek, and the feral swordsman took the opportunity to bite down on his foe's unarmored hand. The shriek turned into a scream, and the Ophythian swung his blade in a manic fashion, Arin rolling under the attack with ease.

Rolling into a kneeling position, the young combat specialist growled at his opponents, barring his teeth in a fashion most commonly seen in dogs as the blood from the previous Ophythian's hand dripped down his chin.

The group of Ophythians paused, trying to gauge how best to handle this new enemy.

* * *

Kate swore under her breath as they continued to move.

"What's wrong?" the empath asked while the brunette turned her attention upward.

"We've got company! Four, closing in fast!" the energy wielder supplied hurriedly, and she stopped a moment later beneath a tree. Glancing around, she found what she sought. There were bushes to their right that partially surrounded a nearby tree. It would have to do.

"Stay here."Kate told the mage as she eased her down against the tree, the empath now mostly concealed by the bushes. Stepping back, she readied herself.

They must have managed to slip around Arin's range of sense. His wasn't as wide as hers, and small groups were harder to feel than larger ones, like the one he had just met up with. He had insane speed and reflexes. She had better energy sense and control.

Their foes must have been flying with the speed at which they approached. Now the enemy was sending out their flying scouts to find the group. They must have been getting desperate as Kate had noticed the winged race was far less in number and was thus probably harder to replace. They must have been nearing a deadline of some sort.

There was no point in hiding, Kate knew. The sense much more potent in their pursuers, they had probably already smelled her and Raven, as they were heading straight for them. So, Kate readied herself.

Squaring her stance, she focused inside herself, drawing on the alien presence within her mind. It responded quickly, hungry after so long in disuse, and her muscles tensed when energy flooded her limbs.

Raven watched, alarmed, as Kate's pupils shrunk until they were nearly nonexistent, veins bulging to indicate a greatly increased heart rate. The most surprising thing was when the brunet's teeth began to sharpen, almost as Beast Boy's would when changing into a fox or wolf. Like claws, her fingernails too grew to sharpened points, and it was then that their pursuers finally came into view up above.

With a snarl, a countenance Raven would not have expected, Kate struck the hard ground with a fist, grabbing chunks of rock as they dislodged, and threw them at their foes, even hard to see in the dark as they were. Surprised, one of the scouts was pegged in the head, losing altitude instantly and vanishing into the canopy of trees below. The other projectile was avoided, and one of the lizard men raised a bow.

Reacting quicker than Raven could have, Kate sprinted forward as the first arrow was released, the weapon digging into the ground in her wake, and vanished into the trees. She had the upper hand in this fight. As she moved, jumping from branch to branch of the trees with the speed and accuracy of a woodland creature, they could not follow her movements from the air, concealed as she was by the canopy of leaves.

But she could sense them.

With this sense guiding her, Kate knew her foe was facing the other way when she leapt from the branches only a few feet behind him. Landing on the back of the thus alarmed enemy, he was unfortunate in that, to fly, heavy armor could not be used. Because of this, his leather pads did almost no good when she dug her teeth into the spot between his shoulder and neck, and the lizard man howled in pain, plummeting to the ground below from the force of her colliding with him.

Placing a clawed hand on either side of his head, Kate then twisted, his scream ceasing, and leapt from his back just as they were about to breach the canopy of leaves. Turning, she managed to grab a tree branch on her way down, using her momentum to swing forward until she landed on top of that same branch.

Hesitating not, she then leapt back to where she could sense Raven, the three remaining foes landing as it had been the first place they'd seen their enemy. If they got the mage, they wouldn't even have to worry about dealing with Kate.

The three winged warriors, the one that had been pegged with a rock among them, searched the small area, and it wasn't long before one had located their prey, hidden partially behind some bushes. Approaching confidently, the winged scout removed a blowgun from his belt and a dart from a pouch. It would knock the mage out and allow them to carry her to their leaders without incident.

Raven knew she had been discovered when one of the three scouts scouting—punn intended—the area started heading her way. She then saw him remove a blowgun and dart from his belt, remembering when they had poisoned Starfire before. The mage doubted she'd be able to metabolize the paralytic drug as fast as the alien princess. But, that would only be important were he allowed to use it on her. Focusing, Raven prepared to use her magic, intending to break one of the large branches above his head—excruciating headache or no, she wouldn't let them get her!

Her plan was proven moot when Kate suddenly dropped from above, landing on the winged lizard's shoulders and startling him greatly. With a growl, the energy wielder clasped her hands together, raised over her head, and slammed them into the Ophythian's face. A strange honkish type sound of pain met the attack when the creatures air was forced out of his mouth, and the lizard man stumbled backwards, Kate leaping from his shoulders to land gracefully a few feet away.

Not pausing, she charged, the other two soldiers having noticed her appearance, and jumped. Her enemy hurled a throwing ax at the approaching young woman, but his eyes widened when she vanished, materializing right in front of him just as her heels drove into his face. Using the attack to kick off, she landed in a crouch just in time to avoid the duel blades of her third enemy.

These foes were much smaller compared to their unwinged companions, roughly being her own size, and Kate was having a much easier time combating them.

Still crouching, Kate reached back, drew her sanjiegun from its sheath and extending all three sections in one fluent motion. Hands holding sections one and two, all three of her foes moving in as she moved forward, she masterfully rotated it vertically around herself, deflecting the first few strikes. Ducking below the next, she then jumped toward one enemy with a sideways rotation and pulled her weapon down at just the right moment to strike the top of his head, slamming him face first into the dirt. Having been struck hard in the head twice already, the Ophythian was unconscious.

Landing and turning, Kate then backflipped over the fallen lizard scout to avoid a throwing ax and threw her weapon out. Hand clutching the third section, the first pegged the enemy clean between the eyes, and his hands moved to his face as he yelped in pain.

The third enemy was then on her, brandishing his twin curved blades and slashing in a masterful frenzy that forced the energy-wielder on defense. Using sections one and three of her three-section-staff, Kate practically had two sword-like weapons of her own, but her opponent's speed was greater, granting him a slash to her right shoulder and left cheek.

Grunting past the pain, Kate crossed the two sections of her weapon over her head to block her opponent's double downward slash, but the force behind it quickly began to overpower her. Gritting her teeth, she silently prayed these lizard folk bore more than a simple structural similarity to humans and kicked him hard in a place any human male hoped not to be. This tactic was met with a mixture between a howl and a screech of pain, and the Ophythian drew back. A quick blow to his right knee brought down one of the two already buckling joints, and, closing her sanjiegun, Kate struck him hard across the face with all three sections. He collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Sorry, no time to play fair." she half apologized and then looked up. The final scout, the one she'd only jabbed with the end of her weapon, was advancing with a throwing ax in each hand, and she readied herself.

And then froze when he did the same, volts of electricity seeming to shoot through him. Alarmed and loosing an odd sort of gurgling sound, the paralyzed enemy fell to the ground, revealing Raven standing behind him, a hand extended. She collapsed almost right after the Ophythian, though, releasing a small grunt of exhaustion.

Blinking in slight surprise, Kate shook her head and felt her limbs grow sluggish and heavier, and she knew she was back to normal. She didn't like to use the ability she just had and only defaulted to it when left absolutely no other option. She spat the vile taste of blood from her mouth, the byproduct of biting the first foe.

Hurrying forward, she then helped Raven stand once more, sensing the energy signals of Arin still off in the distance. He was still fighting, and she could only hope he hadn't forgotten their plan.

But, now that bore another issue, as she and the empath had gained too little ground in too much time. They wouldn't be able to get far enough fast enough for Arin to get out in time.

Cursing internally, Kate closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. She focused on her breathing, trying to force out all other thoughts. She had to clear her mind. That was how this technique worked. A burst of energy in the distance nearly broke her concentration, but she forced it to the back of her mind. Focus. Calm. Choose a direction.

At last, she reached the level of empty-minded calm she needed, and filled her body with energy, along with Raven's. To the mage's credit, she didn't ask what was going on when a strange tingling filled her entire person, and, in the next instant, the two were gone, vanishing into thin air.

* * *

"Aah!" Arin screamed as the blade slashed his chest from his midsection to his left shoulder, and he was thrown to the ground in a graceless heap. Gritting his teeth(or rather canine-like fangs) and quickly rolling despite the new injury, he avoided being crushed by the heavy mace that had followed his descent. Running forward, he jumped, landing on the Ophythian's mace arm as he raised it to attack once more.

Jumping again, the feral warrior charged energy into his hand as he landed on the large lizard man's shoulder, and, with a growl, said hand was shoved into the reptile's face. A pained howl as his eyes were burned, and the Ophythian threw his fist at the much smaller human who effortlessly flipped backwards off of his shoulder to dodge the manic attack.

Landing on practiced legs, the energy wielder hunched to charge forward once more, and had begun to do so, when he sensed a sudden large burst of energy off in the distance. Arin froze mid stride, eyes infinitesimally wider than before, his mind now able to see through the feral haze of his mild transformation.

'And be careful!' the words echoed in his vaguely clearer mind, the large gash across his chest throbbing with a petulant ferocity as if to chastise him, continuing to bleed profusely to stain his shirt further with his own blood. Shaking his head quickly, Arin could sense the return of his complete cognitive functions just as his limbs grew sluggish and heavier, teeth able to grind together once more with their reduced ability to inflict physical damage.

The Ophythians, up to that point, had paused as he had, likely thinking it to be some sort of trick on his part to catch them unawares with a new attack plan. But, Kate was right. There were to many of them. What was worse, they now seemed privy to that fact, the lead smirking as he proceeded to waste no more time before charging.

Movements now painfully slow, the injured Arin barely sidestepped in time to avoid the attack, but was unable to get out of the way of the heavy arm that then arced toward him. The heavy blow threw him backwards to collide forcefully with a tree, spine first. With a cry of pain, the energy-wielder hit the ground as both actions incited an inferno of pain in his chest.

Unable to give the wound the rest it so greatly needed, Arin pushed himself to his feet and ran. Fortunately, the attack had landed him in the shelter of the trees once more, and he was soon too far ahead for his pursuers to hope to catch up.

* * *

Kate assisted Raven into the small cave, the mage collapsing into a tired heap against the wall. Her breaths were coming in ragged, but, other than the ever growing exhaustion, she appeared to be fine. That being said, the brunette's gaze moved to the exit of their small new hideout.

As they had fled, she'd been monitoring the distant flickers of energy, each one both serving to add to her fear and console her at the same time. After all, each one meant that Arin was alive, but that he was also still fighting.

It had grown quickly apparent to her that, with Raven in her current condition, they wouldn't be able to get far enough quickly enough, and Kate had teleported them. It was extremely difficult and had left her far more than winded; she doubted she'd be able to stand properly at the moment now that her adrenalin had faded.

Waiting was unbearable, gnawing at Kate's nerves as she was forced to sit, keeping watch over their charge. It was nearly three quarters of an hour later that Arin had finally stumbled into the opening of the cave, collapsing not a moment later, and the brunette was by his side in seconds.

"Arin!" Kate exclaimed as she took in his condition, the main cause of her concern being the enormous gash housed on his chest from midsection to left shoulder. It had bled a great deal, staining his shirt and the bandages he wore beneath it with his own lifeblood, and she also noted with a nauseating twist in her stomach that he had used energy to try and sear the wound shut, burning and cauterizing it—as well as a descent amount of the skin surrounding it in his efforts.

"H-had to... l-lure t-them away... N-not s-safe..." were the mumbled words that were barely intelligible in his exhaustion, and he promptly passed out after giving them, eyes rolling back into his head. Worry no longer had anything on what Kate was experiencing.

"Arin!" she nearly screamed in horror, shaking his head lightly in a futile attempt to reawaken him, and she continued to call his name in the hopes that it would work eventually. Meanwhile blood slowly but surely continued to seep from the gash on his chest as his attempts to cauterize it had not been one hundred percent successful. There was so much blood on his person alone. How much had he lost overall? His skin was pale and covered in a cold sweat as his unconscious form shivered, the body's natural response to try and warm itself.

It was Raven's presence next to Kate that managed to draw the tracker from her fears and she turned, shifting to allow the mage access. Kneeling quickly, her hands were surrounded in a strange blue magic, and she began to trace Arin's wound.

The bleeding stopped soon after.

* * *

Thankfully, Raven had managed to heal the wound some of the way, though the scar left would remain with Arin for the rest of his days. Kate had then wrapped him in new bandages, removing the ones he had previously donned and setting his ruined shirt aside.

Now, Kate sat, kneeling next to her friend as he slept far too comfortably for her liking. He shouldn't look so calm and peaceful after receiving the kind of injury he had. But, apparently the Ophythians had used a blood thinner, not the first time, their charge informed her, and his attempts to close his own wound hadn't quite gone as planned. Arin probably wouldn't reawaken for some hours to come.

Raven sat a few feet from them as she leaned against the cave wall, the small group forming a triangle of sorts, and it was then she chose to speak the question on her mind.

". . .His skin." the empath almost seemed hesitant to broach the subject. ". . .What's wrong with it?"

Kate took a moment, her gaze remaining on her comrade's face until it then fell to his chest, the source of the mage's concern. That she hadn't been able to heal the apparent affliction hadn't helped.

To an observer, it probably looked like almost his entire upper body was covered in severe streak type bruising. A more apt description would probably be that it looked as though some sort of poison had spread through the skin, turning it black sporadically, and this wasn't too far from the mark. It started at his right shoulder and fanned out from their, some had even reached his neck and most of his right arm too was covered, half of the left.

It wasn't a disease, or at least not really, and he had told Kate years ago that it didn't hurt. Nevertheless, he always wrapped his chest in bandages, even if it didn't cause him pain, and wore collared shirts with long sleeves over them. . . to help hide the discoloration, she supposed. Most of the time, Kate even forgot he had it, so used to how he dressed as she was.

But he had to live everyday with it, hoping no one noticed, and it wasn't even his fault he had it in the first place.

". . .It was a lab. Somewhere off the coast of Europe, we were told." Kate began quietly, eyes rising to stare at the cave wall before her. "They'd collected a bunch of us off the streets. . . .No one to miss us that way, I guess. Who'd notice if a bunch of homeless went missing?" Raven's eyes narrowed a fraction at the apparent nonchalance with which the brunette had said this, pity being foremost in her mind.

"I don't even know how long we were there. They would take turns, only using a few of us at a time. Couldn't have their whole crop keeling over in one go. I think it was a few months before it had seemingly become my turn."

"They took me out of my cage, maybe six feet by six feet carved out of a rock wall, and brought me to a room, much brighter comparatively. Blaring white lights, mirrors on the walls, and I was strapped to some sort of experimentation table in the center." Images flashed through Kate's mind, memories she had wished so long to forget, but never could no matter how much she wanted to. Scientists jotting things down as one approached with a syringe, an odd, cloudy-looking liquid contained inside.

"They injected me with something through a large needle, some sort of alien DNA I'd found out later." Her finger absentmindedly traced over a little black dot on the inside of her right elbow. "It felt like they'd ignited a wildfire in my veins. I could have sworn I was going to die, just by the sheer pain of it. . ."

"They dumped me back in my cage sometime afterward, and I don't really remember anything of the following days other than the fact that it felt like I was burning from the inside out. What I do remember, though, is a man in a white lab coat, observing me from outside my cell bars in the same way he would a lab rat, a clipboard ever present in his hands. I must have been faring better than the others had thus far, because he seemed pleased." a small laugh with no mirth behind it escaped Kate as she recalled this. "Maybe the fact that I had yet to kick the bucket was progress. I don't know."

"It was around that time that they brought Arin in, only a few months older than I was at fifteen. I remember seeing him as they dragged him past my cell. He was fighting, moreso than anyone else when they were brought in. I sure know I didn't put up much of a fight. . . .Too scared to."

"He must have intrigued them because it wasn't another day before they'd done to him what they had to me and then dumped him in the cell next to mine. I could hear him breathing, a fever similar to the one I'd had I could only assume."

She had been surprised at the time when she heard him sing to himself during the late hours of the night, some tune Kate didn't recognize and sung too quietly for her to make out. She almost wondered if he sung it so quietly because he was afraid they would take it from him somehow if he didn't. It seemed to calm him down most of the time, helped him fall asleep. Later, he'd told her it was something his mother used to sing to him before she died.

Sighing, Kate turned her mind back to the story, though it neither was a topic she truly liked to dwell on.

"It wasn't too long before they started to test us. At first, they would use shock sticks, trying to scare us into eliciting some sort of reaction." Kate's fingers twitched here, as though they still expected to feel those electrocutions, and she squeezed her eyes shut, drawing in a long breath to relax her muscles. ". . .It would be a while later before I realized that, when they became happy, it was because they'd managed to bring out what you saw earlier. All I knew was that I felt just a little less tired, but I was too scared at the time to think too hard on it."

"Soon after a few of us started to show this, they began putting us in separate rooms, and they would. . . they would have different things attack us, trying to see what else we could do. Rabid dogs sometimes, or maybe detainees they'd taken from a third world prison they wouldn't be missed from. They told the criminals that, if they managed to kill us, they'd get to go free. So, we had to fight for our own lives." Kate's eyes closed tighter here as a bile taste rose into her mouth. It was not a time she liked to think too long about.

". . .Needless to say, they got their results, though not from all of us." Thinly veiled malice filled her tone here. "Small bursts of energy that would either push back or burn our attackers. The criminals would be detained whenever this happened, the scientists not wanting to lose their 'success' subjects. . . .Some of us didn't come back, though, empty cells across from mine." Kate's gaze once more fell to Arin, the peacefulness with which he slept incommensurate to the tale she was sharing.

Raven continued to sit silently, though mostly because she was stunned that way. Was all of this truly possible? To think that there were people who would actually participate in organizing something of the nature. . .

"But. . . Arin had apparently shown something desirable again. They chose him for their next test, and I heard them knock him out before carrying him away; it was the only way he'd go quietly. I'd soon fallen asleep, as it was hours before anything had seemingly happened. Though, I had no idea at the time that the events were related."

". . .What events?" Raven asked when Kate quieted and grew grim, unsure as to what could have possibly happened next.

". . .Screams. . ." was the older girl's almost silent reply, and the empath's eyes widened in alarm. "I was awoken by the sound of screams. Screams of terror as the very scientists who were doing all of this to us seemingly ran for their lives, simply leaving the rest of us in our cages. Alarms were going off, red lights flashing so brightly I couldn't look directly at them, and I could hear roars off in the distance, almost animal in nature but also somehow human too. A mixture of the two."

She had remembered sitting in her cell, curled up in one of the back corners in fright as she tried to hide from all the noise. She just wanted it all to go way, for the screams and the fear and the growing scent of blood to disappear. She wanted to go back to sleep. Sleeping hurt a lot less than being awake.

And then he—no, _it_—had stepped in front of her cage. Kate had tried to remain as quiet as she could as she watched the silhouette, human in nature, but also so very not at the same time. . . .And those eyes. Like fire they were when they then turned to her, boring into her without the slightest hint of recognition, pity or care. Such rage. . . She'd thought it was going to kill her, but, at the time, she honestly couldn't bring herself to care anymore. It had been years later that she had found out.

". . .It was Arin." Raven's eyes widened again as the surprises kept coming. "There had been a. . . side effect that the scientists hadn't anticipated, and he'd lost control, managed to break free, and began to. . . kill our captors one by one. They'd finally decided containment was more important because they sealed off the exits and detonated the base."

"They what?" Her surprise in this matter disallowed Raven to keep quiet, and, without turning, Kate nodded as though to affirm what she'd said.

"I think the only reason I survived was because, in shielding himself from the blast, he'd also shielded the opening to my cage, which he'd happened to be passing at the time. Since that day, his skin has had that discoloration, another side effect of so much alien DNA being injected into his system."

"The Justice League found us, having seen the base's explosion on their scanners from the Watchtower. I remember being found by Green Lantern and Batman. . . .We were the only survivors, and they couldn't even find any usable data in the base as to what had been done to us. So, they brought us to one of their medical facilities, ran some tests, and began helping us learn to use what we'd gained." Kate turned to Raven for the first time since she'd begun to share their tale.

"It's now been nearly eight years that we've been working for them." the older girl stated simply. "Those scientists had turned us into animals, so now we use what they gave us to hunt people like them."

Raven sat silently, absorbing everything that had been told to her. She then wondered how many Titans or members of the Justice League bore similar stories in their pasts, if not in specific circumstance than in a basic tragic core.

Were none of them allowed 'normal' upbringings?

* * *

Two more hours had passed, and Kate sat still, observing her friend's sleeping visage now and again in search of signs that he may awaken soon.

Nothing so far.

Raven had reentered her mind shortly upon the completion of the tracker team's tale of origin, and, for a decent amount of that time, the vein on her temple had been unrelenting in its effort to burst, as it looked to be attempting to do at that very moment. It gave Kate a headache just thinking about it. Hopefully, the companions inside were getting _somewhere_.

Raven might not last much longer otherwise in her constantly deteriorating state.

Kate sighed, wearily running a hand over her face as she did another sweep of the area in search of any energy signature that would indicate anything larger than a wolf or a deer. Nothing, as it had been since they'd arrived at the cave. The brunette was growing increasingly tired as the minutes slowly continued to stretch into hours.

The jump to their current location alone had been enough to put the desire of sleep well into the forefront of her mind, and a constant vigil of watching the night unfold uneventfully was not helping the issue. But, she would not risk their safety acting under the assumption that nothing would happen. She would not let herself sleep until Arin awoke and, though injured, could take her place just to keep watch—she'd see to it he did no fighting should the need arise. He'd lived through far worse than his latest of injuries, and she doubted she'd ever hear him complain about it. He wasn't the type to dwell on past injury unless it was to learn something from a mistake.

'Just a flesh wound.' Kate could imagine him saying, and the thought brought a small smile to her face.

* * *

The following morning, Kate was sitting at the mouth of their small cave, observing their surroundings and doing everything in her power just to stay awake. Raven had opted to take watch a few hours before, granting Kate two hours to sleep. She would have refused, but she could hardly keep her eyes open at that point. With two hours of sleep shortly behind her, at least the brunette was then able to keep a closer watch on their surroundings.

A grumbling drew Kate's attention down to her stomach, and she groaned mentally, telling it to shut up. As far as food went, the supplies they had brought with them had run out shortly after the first month on the lamb. As such, under normal circumstances when both she and Arin were awake, one would stay and watch the camp while the other would go off and find something for them to eat, usually fish from a nearby stream.

After using so much energy the previous night, it was no wonder that Kate's bowels were greatly protesting their lack of food, but she couldn't leave their camp unattended. Her stomach would just have to get over it.

A sound then stopped her mental chastising of her overly obvious and blatantly stubborn appetite. Shoes against uneven stone. Kate's eyes widened and she wheeled around to face the cave's interior.

"Arin!" she exclaimed with a mixture of concern and glee as she jumped to her feet, hurrying forward to help the injured warrior as he slowly made his way outside, forced to use the cave wall for support. "Here." she offered as she helped him sit on the rock that had been her chair for a little over an hour.

"Thanks." he grit out, doing his best to block out the pain by sheer force of will. And, no complaining whatsoever, not even a mention of his obvious discomfort. Did she call it or what?

"We should check the wound." she informed him, to which he nodded his concurrence. Shifting, careful so as not to agitate the injury, Arin rested his left wrist on his knee, and Kate set about beginning to unravel the bandages around his upper torso. She continued this until her eyes fell to his neck, or, more specifically, his left shoulder.

Last she had seen, the discoloration had only just reached the far side of his neck. Now it was also present on his left shoulder, only just but enough for her to notice. Eyes narrowing as she paused in her task of removing the bandages, she lifted on of her hands to gently touch the skin, almost as if to prove to herself that she was not crazy, nor that it was some hallucination.

She started in alarm when Arin lightly grabbed her hand with his, removing it from the tainted area. He knew. He knew the discoloration was spreading.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kate asked, her voice just above a whisper, almost hurt that he had kept this from her. They'd been partners for nearly ten years, why had he hidden this?

"Because you can't help, and I know you." he replied briefly, though not unkindly. "I didn't want you to worry like you obviously are now."

"You didn't want me to worry about the poison slowly spreading through your whole body?" She asked as though it were obvious he should have thought the other way around.

"Right." he answered simply. "But, it's not poison. It's alien tissue." he corrected.

"_Verdammt_!" Kate swore under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose and ignoring his last comment. Arin turned, understandably surprised as even a part of her old accent seeped through. "That's not how this works, Arin!" came her agitated response.

"Not how what works?" his brow furrowed as he was genuinely confused. Kate stared a moment, thankful she had never been one to blush easily, before finally loosing an exasperated sigh. Now wasn't the time.

"Nevermind." she dismissed as she stood to continue her work on the bandages.

She froze, however, when she noticed something behind Arin's left ear. At closer inspection, it was revealed to be some sort of symbol, though it was too small for her to make out.

"What is this?" she voiced aloud, though not really to anyone in particular as she lightly pushed his ear aside to get a clearer view. Arin turned his head slightly as though trying to see what she was seeing, though humans would never be able to look behind their own ears by such means.

"What's what?" he asked, clearly unnerved by her uncertain tone.

"It's a marking of some sort. Have you always had this?" Kate asked sincerely.

"It's news to me." was his short reply.

"Do you know where you could have gotten-" her question died on her lips when Arin's breath caught audibly, his spine straightening as though volts of electricity were passing through it, his muscles tensing as his jaw clenched shut. He fell to the side off of the rock he was seated on, landing on the ground on his back as his hand shakingly rose to his ear, his limbs twitching as though he tried to regain control of them but couldn't quite manage the task completely.

Kate was by his side almost instantly, eyes wide as she had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"Arin! What's wro-" again, her words were cut off when a searing pain shot down her own body, starting behind her right ear. Her muscles tightened as though they had shrunk on her bones, and she collapsed backwards, unable to stop herself from doing so.

What was this? Her body wouldn't respond to her commands either, and she was left staring up at the clouded sky, her vision slowly but surely fogging over. Could it be that. . . No! It wasn't possible! _When_ could they have. . .

. . .When had the enemy gotten to them?

* * *

_(1) By fangs, I mean all of his teeth, not just the canines. If anyone has seen or read Naruto, it's kind of like what happens to Naruto's teeth when he awakens the first two tails on the demon fox._


	20. The Home Stretch

_**A.N.:** I apologize for my absence to all those who enjoy reading this story. I finally completed this chapter. On the plus side, this chapter turned out to be so long, that it's actually two chapters. That means. The next one is pretty much done, and I will try my best to have it up later this week._

_It is important to note that these next two chapters occur as chapter nineteen is happening. There are small tidbits of italic text in 20 and 21 that show what is happening in 19 as these events are occurring. As such, it may be helpful to read both eighteen and nineteen before proceeding. This chapter starts just after eighteen ends with Insane setting off a seemingly kamikaze style arcane blast._

_**To FelynxTiger:**__ Thanks. I had to alter the back story for Arin and Kate somewhat to make it mesh better with the DC Universe, but I think I like how it came out. I'm glad you enjoy the action scenes because I really enjoy writing them._

_**To u r awesome:**__ As they say, the devil's in the details, and I believe the details are what make a story._

_**To Taeniaea:**__ Many things are going to happen, but I'll never tell! Muahahaha!_

_**To Shadowmeld13:**__ Thanks. I try really hard with the character development. The genre of mystery seems to show itself in just about everything I write, including the three books/ book series I'm currently working on._

_**To thegypsy:**__ I'm glad you like it. I can't remember when I put up the last chapter, but I hope this one and the next are worth the wait._

_**To solar065:**__ Thanks. I'm really trying to make the characters seem three-dimensional. As for Robin and Cyborg, they will be in this story. I do have a sequel in the works, which will become apparent with the ending to this part that will come in a couple chapters._

_A.N.: Thank you to everyone who has had the patients to keep with this story. I know I'm hardly consistent with my updates, and I know how much it can suck waiting for new chapters to come out. That being said, I will not give any excuses for my slacking and will instead let you all get to the story._

* * *

"Brave!" Beast Boy's winded cry sounded as he watched the hoodless mage collapse beside him, but she was already unconscious by the time she hit the floor.

What in the name of Mega Monkeys 4 had just happened?!

One moment, Brave was Raven, totally kicking the bad guys' butts. Then, the next thing the changeling knew, Cunning was fleeing, and Insane was setting off some kind of kamikaze bomb thing, leaving Raven as Brave again after she'd protected him from the blast!

But, why had Insane set off that bomb to begin with? Could it really be something so simple as "she wasn't in her right mind"?

Two dozen feet away, Zippy too collapsed heavily onto the stone floor with a resounding thud that would have echoed around the dome-shaped room if the dome hadn't been destroyed. His enormous form gradually shrank until he was once more a tiny lizard. Starfire, whom their friend had protected just as Brave/Raven had protected Beast Boy, called out to him in concern. Beast Boy would have asked if they were both alright, but movement in his peripherals drew his dazed, swimming gaze. He returned his eyes forward. . . and felt the cold chill of dread wrap itself around him when his eyes focused enough to reveal what had drawn his attention.

. . . No. . .

Insane, after everything that had happened, was standing from where she had apparently collapsed after the blast.

Affection had vanished; Beast Boy could only hope she hadn't been killed from the beating she'd taken. Brave was unconscious; again, he hoped with all he had that this was the case. Starfire was injured, as was the changeling himself, bleeding out from the two slowly healing injuries most recently inflicted to him, and Zippy had collapsed, reverting back to his smaller form. He wasn't moving either.

Things didn't look promising. . .

If the fact that their current foe still seemed able to fight wasn't bad enough, Beast Boy could hear voices, shouted orders definitely belonging to their reptilian pursuers, echoing through the entrance doors from one of the halls nearby. They were closing in, voices and the clanking of heavy metal armor gradually growing louder and louder. It wouldn't be long before the room was swarming with Ophythian soldiers.

. . .Could this be the end of it? After all they'd gotten through, were he and Star going to be killed there in the center of Knowledge's and Wisdom's shared domain, beaten after they had managed to free five of Raven's emotional cores?

It just wasn't right. They had been so close! There was only one more major battle after this one, and they would have won! One more fight and this all would have been over! Beast Boy had even been hoping that, after everything that had happened, maybe Raven at last wasn't so against the idea of them being more than friends and teammates. With a little more time, maybe they could've actually. . .

. . .How could it all simply end there?

Insane slowly extended a trembling arm in the changeling's direction, breathing heavily as though straining against some great force that was trying to stop her, and Beast Boy feared the worst as he only had the strength to watch.

He didn't close his eyes or avert them. If he was going to die, he'd stare death down until the bitter end. He looked his opponent in the eyes, returning the hard glare.

And paused.

. . .

Wait. . .

Beast Boy froze, eyes widening ever so slightly with one simple realization.

She looked different. Insane's. . . insane grin, for lack of a better term, was no longer in place as she instead donned a look of fatigued ire, eyes staring not at but _past_ Beast Boy.

The wonders never ceasing, instead of causing any more harm to any of them, all that happened with the mage's raised hand was the lifting of two pieces of chalk from one of the changeling's belt pouches. Encased in black magic, they sped off to the center of the room a little over a dozen feet away.

As if blown away by a giant leaf blower, the array that had already been there vanished. With more speed and accuracy than Starfire and Beast Boy could ever hope to achieve, the two pieces of chalk then moved across the floor, first drawing a perfect circle, and then moving inward to draw the complex array the duo would have drawn after the fight. In a matter of seconds, what would have taken them at least half an hour, especially given their current conditions, was completed.

A pillar of light appeared at the center of the array, expanding outward and beyond the dome until it eventually faded away in the distance. As if on cue, the glass shards that were all gathered in a pile a few feet from the yellow-clad mage were lifted by some unseen force, spiraling upward through the air to reassemble over the group's heads. Each piece fell into place, the puzzle of tiny glass shards flawlessly reforming the dome that had been shattered moments before.

Beast Boy's surprised gaze moved downward to see Insane had collapsed onto one knee, her fatigue forcing her to place one hand on the ground to support herself. Purple eyes opened beneath the now normal yellow cowl to observe the dome above, and the changeling could only stare, dumbfounded.

How?

He didn't understand. She _had_ been possessed still. The faint scales he'd been able to see on her skin as well as the reptilian fangs and the emblems on the cloak had been proof enough of that, so. . . how had she drawn the array?

Or rather, _why_ had she drawn the array?

Before Beast Boy could even conjure the semblance of an idea required before forming any possible solutions to the question in his mind, sudden shouts tore through the air as the large doors to the room burst open. Still supporting himself on his elbows, the changeling spun around, swiveling at the midsection to observe who had entered. Having momentarily forgotten his injuries, he grimaced with a quick intake of breath, placing the hand of his uninjured arm over the hole in his abdomen when the action of turning sent a flurry of nauseating agony through the area of the injury that nearly made him pass out.

Through bloodshot eyes and star-spotted vision, he could barely make out the forms of the Ophythians storming in through the large double doors. He could no longer hear them over the ringing in his ears, but Beast Boy could see the lizard folk shouting, and, while it didn't appear as though all of them had been able to make it past the stair maze, there were still a descent number of them flooding into the room.

When they saw the now freed mage, however, the lizard warriors halted in their steps like they'd been immobilized by one of Cyborg's new ice discs. Not only did they freeze, but much to Beast Boy's genuine—albeit dazed—amusement, he could have sworn they were trembling, clutching their weapons in defensive positions. Though, to be fair, that could only been his vision shaking, but, hey, a green, genetically mutated kid could dream, right?

Beast Boy turned his dazed and stunned expression back to Knowledge to see she was slowly forcing her trembling legs to hold her weight, eyes concealed in the dark depths of her cowl. The entire room had taken a breath with that simple motion, all sound vacating it as if sucked out by a giant vacuum. The yellow-clad mage almost seemed to move in slow motion as she brought herself to her full height.

There was a pause, her eyes turned downward. Was she meditating? Quite the time to do something like that, Beast Boy couldn't help but think. He, Starfire, Brave, and Zippy were injured—two of them (hopefully) unconscious—they were being surrounded by hoards of enemy soldiers, and—

And, as abruptly as the fighting had come to a stop, Knowledge's eyes snapped open, locked on the Ophythian intruders in the doorway.

The group of lizard men did something else Beast Boy never thought he would have seen, even with his vivid, far-reaching imagination. As if the mage's gaze had ignited a fire at their feet that threatened to engulf the entire room, the lizard folk—sizable, strong, seasoned warriors—turned on their heels and ran, scurrying to get back to the trap door they had probably managed to clear.

In the next blink of an eye, Knowledge, who's legs had been trembling with the simple effort of standing, flew across the room. The air that rushed over Beast Boy as she passed him would have caused him to fall backwards—that and his surprise at her sudden burst of speed—were he not already on his back. Odd how she could seem so frail one moment, and so _not_ the next, he couldn't help but muse to himself.

He couldn't see through the doorway from his angle, but the changeling could certainly hear. And what he heard was definitely not the sounds of the newly freed mage losing. No, there were thunderous booms—once Beast Boy could have sworn he'd seen rubble flying from over the top of the dome as if the walls were being blown outward high and wide—and lightning once flashed into the room from the hall, though not far enough inside to threaten the group of friends within.

Beast Boy gaped.

Holy crap! There was no way they'd managed to combat the mage at full strength! Had part of her somehow managed to hold herself back?

Surprised and mouth still agape, the changeling turned to Starfire, who looked just as aghast as he as she held an unconscious Zippy in her arms. Eyes widening as they fell on their injured friend, Beast Boy's worry for the little dragon quickly reminded him of the other injured member of their party: Brave, lying beside him.

Gritting his teeth as pain again surged through him, Beast Boy pushed himself into a kneeling position and turned to the close-combat mage's unmoving form, cradling his injured left arm close to his injured side as he forced himself to remain conscious for just a little while longer. His spinning head made that task very difficult.

"Brave?" he asked worried as he placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't answer, and he quickly turned her over with his free hand, ignoring the agony the strain of his muscles incited at the action. She almost looked like she was sleeping. But, now, after everything that had just happened, he didn't like the thought or the comparison. He held two fingers to her neck, surprised by how steady they were with his exhaustion, and the changeling released a shaky breath when he found she still had a pulse, even faint as it was. She was only unconscious, just like he'd hoped.

Heaving a sigh of relief, the green Titan settled back in his fatigue, shoulders and head sagging wearily.

He was so tired. . .

One more. They only had to get through one more battle, and then-

As if from nowhere, it was like lighting had shot through Beast Boy's body. His lungs hitched and contracted, his eyes grew wide as his left arm and abdomen tensed as though a high voltage current of electricity was passing through them. It was not a foreign sensation.

Grasping his forearm with his right hand, panic set in as, through his swimming vision, he saw the veins in his arm slowly begin to bulge as his muscles constricted. He didn't notice when he cried out and fell backwards as another excruciating pulse shot through his injured side. He couldn't focus on anything beyond the overbearing pain of it.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire's alarmed voice called out, and she was next to him in seconds. "Beast Boy, what is wrong?!" Her voice was desperate as he rolled onto his side, curling inward as all of his muscles seemed to constrict with the unrelenting torture. Even if he'd had the presence of mind to, the constricting of his lungs hardly allowed him to breath much less tell his concerned friend what was wrong.

Blinded by agony, he didn't notice when Starfire turned to shout something over her shoulder, nor when she was hastily joined at his side by Knowledge.

"Beast Boy!" the mage tried getting his attention, to no avail, as she turned him over onto his back once more. Her eyes flew over his form quickly as if to assess the situation—no doubt thumbing through the vast collection of knowledge she possessed to attain a diagnosis—before she'd come to a conclusion. "Hold him down." she told Starfire. Carefully setting Zippy down, the Tamaranean complied, trying to still the writhing changeling without breaking any bones with her ample alien strength.

Taking in a breath, Knowledge held both of her hands out, one over the hole in Beast Boy's abdomen and the other over the one in his shoulder, both of which had finally begun to regenerate. If only that wasn't the issue. When the changeling began to wheeze, the mage's eyes flicked over to his face before she closed them, muttering her mantra under her breath to force concentration upon herself.

After a moment of terrifying wait, Beast Boy lurched as the sound of tearing tissue was heard, and dozens of tiny shards were lifted from within both wounds, each held aloft by Raven's signature magic. Due to his regeneration, the remnants of the dark crystals had been surrounded by tissue and thus began working their magic again. Knowledge quickly sent the shards flying away from the group, the bunch of them landing on the stone floor a couple of feet away with a flurry of small tinks.

"Quickly, turn him over." Knowledge ordered, and Starfire complied, assisting to roll the changeling onto his side and then holding him still as best she could again. The yellow-clad mage repeated the previous process as before, and Beast Boy gave another lurch as a smaller batch of shards were pulled out through the smaller exit wounds on his back.

Whatever the shards had been doing to the green titan faded as soon as they were removed, and, within the next few seconds, the changeling seemed to calm, his breathing gradually slowing as his exhaustion soon left him unconscious.

Turning him back over, Knowledge first placed two fingers to his neck and paused for a few seconds as though interpreting something. She then lifted his left arm to repeat the process with his wrist, Starfire all the while watching with bated breath, eager and yet terrified of what the mage might say.

"He'll be alright." Knowledge finally disclosed as she sat fully on the ground, holding her hands over the injuries again, though this time they were encased in the aura well known among the Titans to be associated with her healing magic. The Tamaranean Princess nearly collapsed in relief, a hand rising to her rapidly beating but calming heart.

"Thank goodness." she breathed out as she too sat back. She looked to Beast Boy, then Zippy, then Brave beside them, all of whom had been rendered unconscious in the last few moments from their most recent of battles. She couldn't remember the last time the Titans had encountered such dire circumstances, at least not since the times of the Brotherhood and The Brain.

Starfire found herself removing something from a pouch on her belt, a wedding band she had placed there for safe keeping after the chain used to keep it around her neck had been destroyed.

The group was in a state of utter disarray, fatigued beyond belief and bodies showing obvious signs of the trials they'd gone through. Zippy's small form was covered in scorch marks that had been much larger before he'd shrunk to his normal size, and his scales appeared eaten away in places, courtesy of the purple goo Cunning had hit him with. Knowledge's cloak had been tattered by combat before she'd personally regained control of her own center: doing this returned her cloak to its original condition much as it had for the others after regaining control. Beast Boy's armor was once of the newest looking sets of combat leather—or rather pleather as a nice non-leather substitute. Now, the material was worn, torn, and bloodied, the sleeves no longer even present on his forearms from when the changeling had shredded them himself during their confrontation with Timid's darker form, Fear—thoughts of that encounter did not conjure happy memories. The gashes he'd inflicted on his arms then had faded with his natural regenerative abilities, only to be replaced by the new wounds that covered his person, two of the wounds more notable than the other. Even Starfire had a number of physical afflictions not common to her, the most notable of which was the still healing gash on her stomach, a gash that was protesting vehemently upon being struck by Cunning. Brave, laying next to Beast Boy and armor tattered just as his from combat, bore a number of scratches on her person as her green hood, having been used to stop the bleeding of Starfire's stomach wound, remained nowhere in sight. All of this led the Tamaranean to one simple conclusion.

Dull, this adventure certainly was not.

* * *

_Kate assisted Raven into the small cave, the mage collapsing into a tired heap against the wall. Her breaths were coming in ragged, but, other than the ever growing exhaustion, she appeared to be fine. That being said, the brunette's gaze moved to the exit of their small new hideout._

* * *

"What's happening?" Cunning asked through gritted teeth as another wave of magic surged through her, sparks bouncing off of her as though she were some short-circuiting machine. After a moment, the phenomenon passed, and she took in a shaky breath, hands trembling from the exhaustion of withstanding the surges.

"Your hold on that body is weak, and the mage is fighting back. Her efforts have been amplified by the ground their little group has covered." Rage's tone was unnervingly apathetic as she spoke. "Simple possession is not enough anymore, it seems."

"So—" Another magical surge came and went. "S-so, what do we do?" Cunning asked, scrutinizing her hands as though she expected them to disappear at any moment.

There was a pause.

". . .For now, nothing." The red-clad mage's continued apathy was much to her companion's surprise. Nothing? But, if these surges kept up, all that remained of her strength would wane, and she would be forced to release her hold on the possession. For all her considerable power, though, she did not voice these concerns, warily eying her companion as she continued to speak.

"But, I have an idea." Rage almost seemed curious to test her theory. "You shall wait here."

Cunning was left to look on in confusion as the red-clad mage turned and walked away, heading for a stairwell at one end of the room. Though unsure as to the mage's plans, Cunning again kept carefully quiet. It was not her place to question. She only listened and obeyed.

Anything else would be dangerous.

She was surprised when Rage spoke up to answer her unasked question.

Still walking, she said loud enough to be heard, "I shall find you a replacement."

Cunning blinked.

What a cryptic thing to say.

* * *

Beast Boy flexed his left hand, opening and closing it experimentally. Well, it didn't _seem_ any weaker than it had been before. To test further, he lifted his fist and punched the air.

And immediately regretted the action when pain shot up his left side from abdomen to shoulder.

Grimacing, he clutched said shoulder and slowly brought the arm back down.

That could become an issue if it didn't heal more. But then, even if he was still currently able to form a fist with his hand, there was an odd, partially-numb sensation in his left shoulder, making the limb feel sluggish. The sensation continued part way down his arm, and there was a tingling in his fingers that made him think of whenever an arm or a leg had fallen asleep. Beast Boy rubbed his fingers together, focused on the odd sensation between feeling them and not. He was so focused, in fact, that he didn't notice Knowledge's approach until she had knelt down in front of him.

"Here." she offered calmly as she extended a hand, a translucent blue aura surrounding the appendage as she held it to his shoulder. Gradually, the changeling felt the tingling in his fingers lessen until it was barely noticeable, but the semi-numb sensation in his shoulder remained. After few moments of deep concentration, Knowledge lowered her hand. A small frown was the only thing warping her face from its usual appearance of calm-collectedness.

"What's wrong?" Beast Boy didn't like that frown, though he succeeded in keeping most of the concern from his voice. Whenever Raven frowned and no pranks or shenanigans by others were involved, bad things were bound to follow.

"I was afraid of this." the mage's embodiment of intelligence answered, more to herself than he. That didn't help ease his concerns. Obviously, she knew this and began to explain. "The dark crystals that caused this damage," she began, Beast Boy certainly recalling the crystals she spoke of as they had literally impaled him, "I learned of them through one of Malicor's books years ago, but I have never personally used them on account of their. . . effects. In a sense, they cause nerve damage, but it is not only a physical affliction."

The changeling mused briefly here if Knowledge was making sure to use words he would understand_._

"The pulsations the dark crystals emitted sent a magical nerve ailment into your muscles." she continued and then paused, seeming to be looking for some form of 'okay' from him. Beast Boy nodded, telling her he understood well enough. With a nod of her own, the mage began again.

"In essence, they slow the signals sent from your brain to the area afflicted. This causes a sort of slowing paralytic effect, but, if slowed enough, these signals could even be stopped entirely." She paused again here, though this time from some sort of desire to not say what came next. Her words had certainly gotten Beast Boy's attention, though. Stop entirely?

. . .

Wait, did that mean. . .

". . .Were it not for your natural regenerative capabilities. . . it is possible you may have never been able to use your arm again." Knowledge reiterated, and Beast Boy's eyes widened, lungs hitching as though the wind had been knocked from them by a physical blow to his person.

"I-I could've lost my arm?!" The concern was obvious in his voice now, his eyes retaining their owlish size. The prospect was a terrifying one indeed. After all, without his arm, even his non-dominant left . . .

Crime fighting, he could adapt to. He'd even probably get out of a descent portion of his chores—not that he did them much anyways—given the inability to wash much of anything. He could always turn into something like an octopus, but that would probably make a bigger mess than whatever it was he would be cleaning up. All of that, however, was fairly harmless.

But, without both hands how would he ever play the Game Station with Cy and Robin again?!

"Not literally speaking, no, but you might have been unable to move it." The subtle lowering of Knowledge's tone indicated a sense of culpability at this news.

Never before had Beast Boy been so thankful to be a freakish oddity of nature!

"I am sorry." Knowledge again cut into his thoughts, surprising the changeling. He almost asked what about, but she spoke to answer before he could even get the words out. "If I had been able to stop myself sooner, than this wouldn't have happened."

Beast Boy blinked. She felt guilty about this? It was really just a strange numbness in his shoulder. He could live with that.

"What? No, it's not you're fault." he insisted with all honesty.

He was still surprised she'd been able to regain control at all. None of the others had. Beast Boy was about to ask Knowledge how she'd managed to pull that off, but he stopped himself short. It wasn't that important at the moment. All that really mattered was that she _had_ been able to regain control. Everything else could wait until later.

"It was still my abilities that harmed you and my possessed form that carried out the task. . . No matter the circumstances, I am still sorry." Knowledge returned, her demeanor some strange mixture of penitence and calm. Maybe acceptance of the so-called wrongdoing?

"Star and I knew what we were getting into." Beast Boy deflected with a sheepish laugh as he dismissively shrugged his shoulders, an odd sensation when one of them was numb. He then paused, his own words dawning on him. ". . .Well, okay, that was a lie." he amended. "We didn't, but still. I know that, given the chance to stay at the Tower instead of coming out here, I would have made the same choice, and I'm sure Star feels the same. And if Robin and Cy didn't have to hold down the fort back in Jump City, I know they would have charged out here too without a second thought."

Upon the completion of his rambling attempt at consolation, Knowledge observed the changeling for a time almost curiously, as if she were examining some baffling creature from a distant planet instead of someone she'd been both working with and living with for nearly six years.

Beast Boy was then greatly surprised when she closed her eyes and loosed a small laugh—well, it was more of an amused puff of air that came out through her nose than a laugh, but maybe that was close enough to one for her.

"What?"He was sorely confused, brows knitted together to show as much. Something had been amusing?

"I keep forgetting we are nearly twenty." the yellow-clad mage mused aloud, what he could have sworn was an almost-smile twisting her lips ever so slightly. This comment possibly confused the changeling even more. Sensing this as well, Knowledge voiced the remainder of her thoughts.

"You may not realize it, but you have matured." she supplied simply, much to the green teen's continued amazement. "Perhaps not entirely, but certainly enough to make a perceptible difference."

And there she went with a couple of the big words again. But, the changeling supposed he should take it for the compliment it sounded like it was.

"Thanks, I think." Beast Boy grinned as he scratched the back of his head. Distant clattering sounds then drew his attention, and he turned. He could see Starfire through the large doors. She seemed to be scavenging for pieces of armor to replace her more damaged ones. The miss-matched pieces looked a little odd, but it was probably effective and far safer to use them than going into battle without them.

Beast Boy's gaze then trailed over to his other side to Brave and Zippy, a few feet away from he and Knowledge. Zippy had awoken a few minutes previously, but had then curled up next to their injured friend and fallen asleep. Looking at said friend, Beast Boy noted again that, were it not for the hovering, he would have sworn the mage was simply sleeping. It recalled memories of what Raven had done during the Beast incident, hovering over the hospital bed in Titans Tower as she healed herself. Brave must have been doing that now.

As Beast Boy's eyes lingered on the seemingly unconscious mage's still visage, flashes of the previous fight returned to the surface of his mind. Again, she was like this because of something he had done. First, it was because he had gone overboard in the fight with Adonis, and now it was because he had been too slow to avoid Insane's oncoming attack, thus forcing Raven through Brave to guard him. He just hoped Brave's state didn't cause Raven's mind to weaken any further.

"The meditation is necessary to heal." Knowledge's words brought the changeling from his thoughts, and he blinked, returning his gaze to her. Mind catching up, he nodded.

"Yeah, I remember that happening before. Do you know how long it'll take?" Beast Boy's ears drooped a small fraction when the embodiment of Raven's knowledge shook her head.

"It may take several hours, but even I do not know for sure." she supplied simply, and then continued, almost as if as an afterthought. "In the meantime, you two shall wait here while the rest of us continue on." Beast Boy was about to argue when the mage fixed him with a stern '_don't even bother_' look that shut him right up.

She stood, saying, "When Brave awakens, she can bring you to us. In the meantime, you are in no condition to travel. Rest and let your injuries heal more." Her tone and expression told him to not even dare disobeying, and Beast Boy could only nod. With that business settled, Knowledge turned and left the room to find Starfire, who was finishing up her armor patch job.

The two awoke Zippy as well and departed with him shortly afterward. It was only then, when Beast Boy knew that there was nothing he could do other than wait, that he realized just how unbelievably tired he really was. There was only one way to rectify that. So, obeying his orders, Beast Boy laid down next to the hovering Brave and slumbering Zippy and closing his eyes. He was asleep in moments.

* * *

_Raven had reentered her mind shortly upon the completion of the tracker team's tale of origin, and, for a decent amount of that time, the vein on her temple had been unrelenting in its effort to burst, as it looked to be attempting to do at that very moment. It gave Kate a headache just thinking about it. Hopefully, the companions inside were getting somewhere._

_Raven might not last much longer otherwise in her constantly deteriorating state._

* * *

Magic truly was a finicky thing. That was one thing Starfire had decided definitively to herself throughout this entire venture. At first, the group had only been able to use their powers outside of Raven's emotional centers, and in them after they had been freed. Then, it was discovered that Raven and her embodiments could use their powers for a short time if they concentrated enough or were desperate enough. She was still a little unsure on the details there but she supposed that was alright. It at the least made some form of sense being that it was Raven's mind and all.

But things had started to become complicated from there. Even as they freed sections of Raven's mind, somehow the demon was still managing to gain more control to the point where the group had no longer been able to use their powers even when outside the emotional centers but still within the freed realms. She still had no ideas why their powers had been returned to them in the previous battle once the glass dome had been destroyed. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Knowledge had been trying to break free from the demon's control—and had by the end of the fight. Whatever the case, their power had been stripped as soon as they had left the temple that was home to Raven's knowledge and wisdom, exiting through the front door rather than the lower tunnels.

Thus, she and Knowledge, accompanied by Zippy of course, had trecked outside of the emotion's turf, again on foot. As a bonus, it seemed the mage had scared off all of the Ophythians when she'd regained control and gone on a rampage because never once did they reappear. And so, the trio had soon arrived at the border that led to the very center of Raven's mind, housed closest to her intellectual center.

This was where things had once again become complicated. Apparently, the energies in this part of Raven's mind were too uncontrollable, too unruly and vast, to bind completely, even by one so powerful as the demoness Naðra. As such, one trained in the manipulations of such energies would still be able to access them, even if not in their entirety. And thus, Knowledge was able to transport them across the land via a disk of dark energy—apparently she was not able to attain the control necessary to transport them using her soul self, so flying would have to suffice.

It was all very confusing to Starfire. Though, she'd come to simply accept these things as they were since she wasn't likely to be capable of understanding the intricacies of them anytime soon.

So, she watched as the scenery passed. Odd scenery, to be sure. It seemed to be some form of cosmic plane. The only land was comprised of jagged, floating pathways of rock below them that expanded occasionally into larger fields before narrowing again. The sky around them was the most peculiar of all. Red seemed to be a prominent theme as most of the apparent stars held the particular hue, just as the ones seen from Knowledge's observatory had been. Even the celestial bodies of what reminded the Tamaranean of solar eclipses were bathed in red. She realized after a time that it must have had something to do with Raven's father. He had held quite the connection to the color, and not only in regards to his skin.

Starfire soon came to the conclusion that she didn't much like this place. She didn't know what Raven thought of it, but the area reminded the Tamaranean too much of their trials against the darker girl's father. Those were not memories she fondly enjoyed reliving.

Zippy, sleeping next to Starfire, then decided to stretch his limbs as he rolled onto his side, drawing the young woman's thoughts to the mystery that was his existence. He was supposed to be a sort of back-line defense put up by Raven's mind, somewhat resembling their shape-shifting friend in both mentality and ability.

But, what was odd about him was that, the weaker Raven's mind supposedly became, the stronger he grew. He had started shifting into a much more dangerous and infinitely larger version of himself during dire situations. Perhaps it had something to do with the forces of equality. The stronger one pushed, the more the thing they were pushing would push back. In essence, the more Naðra fought for control, the more Raven's backup defenses fought back. It was certainly something to consider, though this also brought to mind the possible consequences of these defenses failing.

If Naðra pushed too hard, what would happen to their small companion? Would he "reboot", as Cyborg would say, or would he possibly vanish? And, if he _did_ vanish, would it be temporary or would it be for good? Starfire had grown quite attached to their new friend and would hate to see him go. He wasn't merely a copy of Beast Boy in lizard form, though the two did often react to things in similar ways. No, he was his own entity. At least, to Starfire's mind he was.

Honestly, though, these emotional embodiments of Raven's the group had been meeting seemed different enough from their true friend in their individuality that it was sometimes hard to remember they were all one and the same. She hoped she and Beast Boy would not view their friend differently after this episode in their lives, having spent so much time with parts of Raven she didn't often show. Would it be difficult readjusting, or would they simply fall back into old routines as if little had happened when all of this was over?

The only exception of the varying Ravens was Knowledge. She seemed similar enough to the real Raven, likely because the mage was highly logical by nature, that the only real difference was the color of her attire.

All of this was exhausting to think about, and the Tamaranean Princess hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep until she had awoken some time later. With a still partly cloudy mind—also wondering how she'd managed to sleep sitting up, even if hunched over—Starfire was about to ask her current companion how much farther they had to go.

That was, until she realized she'd only awoken because they were no longer flying but falling!

Letting out a shriek of fright, Starfire flailed her arms wildly and willed herself to fly until her then completely awake mind reminded her that she had no powers. Shutting her eyes tight, the alien princess prepared herself for a hard landing. She really shouldn't have been surprised when Knowledge's dark energy reached up from the ground below to meet the falling Tamaranean, slowing her fall considerably. The landing still felt similar to being clobbered by Cinderblock, but Starfire was sure that her back and posterior were not throbbing nearly as much as they would have been otherwise.

Groaning as he struggled to sit up, Starfire cast a confused look around the area as Zippy landed unharmed beside her—wings were wings, after all. The Tamaranean warrior noticed their problem almost immediately, the cause for their sudden landing. It was rather hard to miss, actually.

Because what a problem it was.

There, standing not fifteen paces from the group, was the smirking, red-cloaked embodiment of all of Raven's anger.

Rage.

This fact alone nearly dealt a physical blow to Starfire for all of the shock it hit her with, and an image of Rude doing that very thing flashed through her mind. It was only emphasized by the fact that the Tamaranean now noticed their destination not too far behind the mage, perhaps half a mile between them. Almost like a tower or castle, the structure seemed formed out of the rock beneath their feet, what appeared to be a hooded facial structure at the base to form the entrance to what was to be their final challenge. Ridges of white light rose up the structure's surface, casting a light other than red about the area. Atop the tower lay their destination, the dome-shaped roof being rather difficult to miss.

Rude had come to meet the group of companions as they had approached her abode as well. But, whatever the similarities of circumstance in their meetings, this new foe looked far more daunting than Raven's formerly possessed embodiment of discourtesy. Red, glyph covered robes only accented the four glowing red eyes the Titans had come to associate with their friend's demon half. Scales had spread to the base of her jaw, and what parts of her skin remained untouched by the scales appeared to be made of clay. The corners of her mouth were cracked, accentuating the possessed embodiment's grin in an all too eerie fashion.

Wait, a grin? Raven's embodiment of rage was grinning?

Were they to be tested once more? That had been the motive behind the last of such meetings. Although, there was also. . . Starfire cast a troubled glance at Knowledge as the mage landed beside her, also able to fly on her own. Was she to be taken this time? Of course, there was always the possibility that their enemy had simply grown tired of waiting and had come to finish all of this then and there.

Oh, how the alien warrior wished she had her powers again. She had been feeling so far out of her element without them, as though a piece of herself was missing—and it technically was. The brief time for which she had been able to use them several hours previous had only made her miss them all the more.

"So, you have decided to save us the trouble of searching for you." Knowledge's calm words drew Starfire from her thoughts. The widening of Rage's smile was the mage's only answer. The yellow-clad mage frowned as Starfire's hand moved to her sword, still sheathed on her back, instincts put into overdrive in the face of this new enemy. The last time she had seen Raven's demon side was during Trigon's invasion, and that had been years ago. Raven's powers had grown greatly since then, so there was no way to know what to expect in this confrontation.

That was why, when Rage gave a flourish of her arms, Starfire was surprised to see five copies of her rise from the ground, solidifying from seemingly liquid earth. Surprised and certainly worried, as it was now only she, Zippy and Raven's embodied knowledge against six enemies, Starfire's grip on her flamberge's handle tightened.

Numbers might not win battles, but they could certainly be of great help in the effort.

This was bad. Brave, when possessed, had created copies as well, but Rage seemed somehow more. . . sinister than any of the other Ravens they had faced. Perhaps it was the admittedly 'creepy' grin she wore, or maybe it was the four glowing red eyes that brought up rather unpleasant memories of their teammate's beloved father, but there was just something about the red-clad mage that made Starfire, simply put, apprehensive.

She had not felt a presence of this magnitude in four years.

* * *

_**A.N.:** I would like to take just a short moment to thank all those who have read this story and those who have left reviews. As stated above, chapter 21 will be up later this week._


	21. Rage

_**A.N.:** Okay, it's still technically this week, so I didn't lie when I said I would get this chapter up later in the week. And this one is nearly 12,000 words long! Added almost seven pages to it just today (so I'm sorry if there are any errors)._

_**To Mia222**: I too am grateful that you found this story, as I love sharing my stories with people, and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. As for the characters and their comic book selves, I really only know what I discovered through research, so I hope it's at least mostly accurate. Thank you for your review, and pleas enjoy this new chapter!_

* * *

_The following morning, Kate was sitting at the mouth of their small cave, observing their surroundings and doing everything in her power just to stay awake. Raven had opted to take watch a few hours before, granting Kate two hours to sleep. She would have refused, but she could hardly keep her eyes open at that point. With two hours of sleep shortly behind her, at least the brunette was then able to keep a closer watch on their surroundings, allowing Raven to reenter her mind._

* * *

Just as Starfire drew her weapon, intending to confront their new and hopefully final enemy head on despite the uneven numbers, four portals swirled to life in the space about their trio, momentarily giving pause to her charge into battle.

This day was simply full of surprises, the Tamaranean Princess realized. Four figures, identically clad to Knowledge save for the color of their cloaks, rose from their individual portals, each standing in a way befitting their personality. The cavalry had arrived not a moment too soon as Happy, Rude, Timid, and Affection joined Knowledge, Starfire, and Zippy in facing off against Rage and her clones. All Ravens were present save for the still corrupt Cunning and Brave. Starfire took this to mean that the close-quarters mage was still in the process of healing herself, Beast Boy still with her and doing the same.

"Hey, Star!" Happy greeted her friend from Knowledge's other side in a chipper manner that held true to her name despite the group's current predicament. "Long time no see!"

"Um, hello." Starfire replied in obvious surprise in response to the appearance of the unanticipated cavalry. Now, the Tamaranean would be the first to admit that meeting a chipper Raven, one who wore pink nonetheless, had given her pause originally, but it was nice to see her friend expressing her happiness so openly, even if only for a while.

The relatively blissful reunion was brought to a swift end when their enemy added into the conversation for the first time.

"I do hope you realize this is not merely a game of numbers." Rage, the one in the middle, spoke as she held that same cracked grin on her face as before. Starfire quickly noticed an oddness to her voice, almost like Raven's was being echoed by that of another. Rude, off to the side, gave an ill-mannered scoff, folding her arms with a huff and an annoyed roll of the eyes.

"Says the frickin' pot. You started it." she grumbled, clearly not at all concerned to offend their daunting foe. Starfire nearly winced at the tone. This could not end well.

"Please, I don't think you should-" began a concerned Timid, only to be cut off by her orange-clad counterpart.

"Oh, lighten up. She already wants to kill us. It's not like my taunting will drive this loon further over the edge than she already is." Rude dismissed the cautious mage's worry with a simple shrug.

"But-"

"Next you're gonna' tell me I shouldn't use sarcasm

sarcasm 'has no place in a civilized conversation', particularly with an enemy that wishes us dead." Rude continued sarcastically, clearly not believing that ideal one bit.

"Well, actually, now that you mention it-" Timid murmured, and Rude palmed her forehead in agitated indignation.

"Oh, you've got to be-"

"Enough!" The argument was brought to a swift end with Knowledge's stern reprimand.

Starfire, trying her best to keep her attention on their strangely still opponents, did not believe that she would ever get used to these conversations. One Raven speaking to another was simply an odd idea in and of itself, but when they began to argue, she could not help but be concerned. She had sometimes heard humans speak of the voices within one's head. Was this what they had meant?

"I do agree. All of this senseless bickering is grating on my nerves." Rage unamusedly put in. On a plus side, she no longer wore that somewhat terrifying grin.

"Oh, it is, is it?" Rude, clearly unimpressed, quirked one eyebrow in mock inquiry.

"Okay, _not_ helping!" Knowledge grit out to her unfriendly counterpart.

"What? Little demoness can't take a little mocking, or is this the part where we're supposed to rise above such-" Rude never finished her statement as one of the Rage clones was suddenly right in front of her, a fist encased in black flames poised to strike her in the face. The mage looked about to curse in surprise, a surprise mirrored by each of her allies, as she moved in an effort to defend. When she failed, the blow sent her flying back with a cry of pain. Though, she was able to regain her footing, so to speak. Correcting her position, she brought herself to a halt in midair, flying as she had a great deal during the team's fight with her possessed self.

The group stood stock still, as none had been able to follow their foe's movements before the strike. Such speed! The clone, in turn, simply straightened in her place a few feet from Starfire, seemingly calm once more.

But this aggressive action didn't seem to have sat well with a particular member of the allied group. Zippy, growling from where he'd landed on the ground between Starfire and Knowledge, lurked forward, vicious eyes trained on the Rage clone.

And, as he seemed accustomed to doing now, the small dragon began to grow, claws digging into the ground as his weight increased. Starfire had personally witnessed the little dragon's transformation twice before, but there were obvious differences she noted this time.

Whereas before he had gained a massive girth and armor that could probably rival that of a Tamaranean Dreadnaught, currently, it was really only his height that changed. His overall proportions remained greatly the same. Where the previous Zippy had been built for defense and bursts of incredible speed, his new form seemed to be more aimed toward speed and agility in and of themselves. Even hunched over as he was, he grew until he was a few inches taller than the Tamaranean Princess who stood stunned beside him. His claws had sharpened to razors, and a forest of bladed spikes had manifested atop his scaly back, neck, and tail in place of his wings. And Starfire could have sworn she saw some form of fluid oozing from the ridges in his spikes and claws. It sizzled, oddly enough, when it dripped to the ground.

Was that acid?

Zippy growled at his declared foe before him, and the Rage clone's cracked grin returned.

At a speed that seemed to match that of his enemy, Zippy darted forward, and they were off. Starfire could hardly follow their movements as the two seemed to take turns rushing each other, a clash of metal and magic erupting whenever they met.

But Starfire's attention was quickly drawn front-ways as a shadow loomed, and she didn't waste the time it would take to look up before leaping to the side. A split second later and Rage's heels would have driven her into the ground. As to whether this was the real Rage or not, the Tamaranean hadn't been watching, so she hadn't a clue on that front. The instant the mage's feet struck the ground, splitting it with the sheer force of the impact, a wave of magical energy burst from her, and Starfire was blown backwards before she'd even tried to tumble after her leap.

Somehow, she'd managed to keep a grip on her sword, but the blast had forced the air from her lungs despite the protective armor she wore. Her landing was made premature when another Rage, apparently lying in wait as the Tamaranean flew back, slammed her clasped hands into Starfire's stomach with frightening force. With no air in her lungs, she couldn't even give voice to the pain the blow caused. Momentum shifting instantaneously, Starfire struck the ground hard enough to become embedded in it several inches, the dry, gray stone cracking around her armored body. She could have sworn she heard something snap, and a severe pain now emanating from the lower part of her chest indicated a fractured floating rib or two. Her enemy stood above her as the Tamaranean simply lay there motionless in wide-eyed shock and pain, the other Rage approaching slowly from where she had sent Starfire flying.

Starfire knew of the plan these two had initiated. They had separated her from the group that was currently too engaged in a ferocious battle with the other five Rages, only one of them real, to offer any assistance to her. They would tag team to finish off Starfire and then move on to the next, taking the companions out one by one until none remained. With the overwhelming power they had just displayed, it was certainly a good strategy. The clone above her raised a fist to further said plan along.

But Starfire didn't have to make it easy for them.

As the clone drove her fist downward, likely for the kill, Starfire braced her hands against the ground and threw her feet up, ignoring the agony the motion ignited in her chest. This action served to both deflect the blow, sending her enemy off balance, and flip the Tamaranean out of her small crater and back onto her feet. Flamberge still firmly in her hand, the mage had to leap backwards to avoid being eviscerated by the heavy sword slash that quickly followed the warrior's absurdly swift backwards somersault.

Raven was not the only one to receive lessons in hand-to-hand combat from Robin. Though Starfire was more of a powerhouse fighter than they, she was capable of short but incredible bursts of speed and agility, a quality that had likely just saved her life as her foes appeared to have not foreseen such an ability from her.

Her luck in catching them off guard didn't last long, as Starfire was still outnumbered two to one. The Rage who seemed to specialize in attacks of power closed in the instant her flamberge completed its pass at her midsection. The Tamaranean could almost feel the skin and tissue beneath her arm bracer begin to bruise as she was forced to block the crushing attack with her forearm, a blow that dented the metal and left it uncomfortably warped.

The next thing Starfire knew, however, there was a rush of wind from behind, and she was lifted off her feet and blown forward several paces by a concussive blast of wind, courtesy of the seemingly elementally oriented Rage who'd first engaged her. As she had seen her ally, the Power Rage had ducked to avoid the blast, left unharmed and sure-footed. Not anticipating the intervention of the Elemental Rage, Starfire couldn't correct her footing in time and was sent tumbling across the dead landscape as her foes charged in.

Managing to regain a little control of her tumble, Starfire landed in a crouched position and began to rise, only to have her chin struck by the Power Rage's knee. The blow sent her reeling back, but Rage closed in again. The flamberge was ripped from the Tamaranean's grasp and thrown away, clattering across the stone between them and the group battling it out twenty yards away. Clutching the collar of Starfire's armor with one hand to keep her from dodging, Rage then threw the other knee into the alien warrior's stomach.

Eyes wide and mouth agape in a silent pain as she had yet the opportunity to breath properly, Starfire doubled over, that hand on her collar keeping her from collapsing fully. It was almost all Starfire could do to remain standing as she could almost feel her knees begin to shake from the force of the blow. One more hit like that, and she might very well be down for the count. But, the strength of a Tamaranean did not long remain waned, even in fatigue.

And Rage didn't hit as hard as Blackfire did.

Muscles tensing, Starfire snarled as she grabbed the Power Rage's shoulder and the wrist of the hand supporting her, standing just fine on her own after she'd pried said hand from the collar of her armor. Apparently dumbstruck by her continued ability to fight, the mage didn't have the time to respond before Starfire had slammed their foreheads together to stagger her foe and then followed up with a swift but powerful armor-plated knee to the gut, just to spite her foe for the blow previously given to her.

Swordless she may be, but defenseless she most certainly was not.

Rage crumpled into a heap when Starfire gave her a light shove, hands clutching her stomach in agony for the damage the strength of a Tamaranean could cause. If she'd had anything in her stomach, Starfire was fairly certain Rage would have just emptied it onto the dead, gray ground.

Biding her time until then, the Elemental Rage flew around from the side and threw her hand out. Barely able to catch her breath after the blow to her own stomach, Starfire was forced to hunch down low to avoid being blown off her feet by another gust of air, though she was still pushed back several paces. Oh, what she would give to have her starbolts back in that moment.

The attack was only another distraction, for, when Starfire lifted her head upon the wind's easing, the Rage of strength had seemingly regained her bearings and was closing in fast with a fist rising. If anyone had any doubts as to whether this truly was Raven's aspect of Rage, those doubts would have been mercilessly silenced for the expression that twisted the mage's four eyed visage. Fortunately, that rage made her more predictable in her movements and attack style.

Starfire twisted to avoid the foreseeable lunge strike, though it did jarringly glance off of her shoulder. Planting her feet, the alien warrior then grabbed her foe's extended arm and the cape at her shoulder and lifted Rage off of the ground. With all of the strength of a Tamaranean, she reversed the mage's momentum and slammed her onto the ground. If she'd thought about what this would do before she'd done it, she certainly would have hesitated.

For, the audible snap that reached her ears as the entity that resembled on of her closest friends hit the ground with her neck at an odd angle, actually made Starfire cringe as her insides rebelled with the knowledge that she'd just taken one of the few lives she ever had.

Rage crumpled into a heap as she had done before, but, this time, she did not get up. She simply lay there for a moment, her vertebrae oddly disjointed at the neck. Starfire felt the growing need to empty her stomach of its contents when the prone body slowly began to turn to dust, almost as if it were burning without being lit on fire, and the remaining ashes were blown away on a wind the Tamaranean could not feel.

It was soon as if the body had never been there in the first place, and, before she had the returned state of mind to realize it had been one of the clones she had just killed, the rustle of a cloak from behind was a quick reminder that there were many more foes on this battlefield.

Starfire spun quickly, raising her fists as the elemental Rage oddly enough charged in for actual melee confrontation rather than relying on her previous tactic of wearing her opponent down from afar. Starfire successfully parried a few swift strikes until the four eyed mage double-palmed the air between them. A smaller concussive blast than those before was released from her palms, and it staggered the Tamaranean for both its close proximity and the echo of ever-growing fatigue in her limbs.

Her opponent's defenses down and lagging, Rage flexed both of her hands, and they were engulfed by fire as though they had been doused in oil and lit with a match. Without hesitation or remorse, she moved in, thrusting her hands and thus the blue flames covering them, forward. Starfire could feel the intense heat radiating from the flames as they drew nearer to her face, beginning to burn her tough Tamaranean skin even as they were still a foot away. The extreme heat and the presence of the fire conjured flashes of memories and the accompanying sense of terror Starfire now possessed and would be ashamed to admit to anyone about having.

Images of her hands, black as charcoal and no sense of feeling anywhere in them, blinked through her mind's eye in rapid succession to accompany the sickening memory of the stench of her own burned flesh.

Panic began to set in swiftly, bringing both her mind and body to a screeching halt, defenses dropping as terror took hold.

Starfire almost didn't realize it when a figure flew into view over her head, two familiar wrist blades encased in black energy flashed in the crimson light of the strange stars in the sky. Those blades did what her paralyzed mind would not tell her to in parrying Rage's fire infused hands. Having flipped over Starfire, a now upside down Brave landed a perfect downward heel-kick on the corrupt mage's head. Her opponent doubled over at the blow as the rambo mage landed between the two combatants, and it wasn't a second later that Brave slammed both arms into Rage's stomach to further stagger her opponent. A quick palm blast to the face that emitted a blast of dark energy followed and sent the evil mage flying backwards with surprising speed.

Or perhaps it was the lagging in Starfire's mind that made the mage's forced retreat seem so swift. One moment, she'd been there, and, the other, she was flying through the air half a dozen paces away.

"Hah! Who said you could start without me?!" Brave exclaimed, confident smirk well in place as she fell back into a defensive stance with her bladed, open-palmed hands at the ready. Starfire, her mind still partly recovering from her previous panic, was both greatly stunned and relieved to see the still hoodless mage.

In no understatement, her timing could not have been better.

"Brave! It is good to see you are well!" The Tamaranean gave a short-winded cheer of relief as her figure slumped forward slightly to allow her muscles a moment to relax. She took the time now granted to catch a much needed breath. Said mage half-turned to her, showing that same confident grin she'd put on for their foe.

"Not a hundred percent, but well enough!" she agreed with a assured thumbs up. But, her eyes then drifted a few inches to the side as if noticing something behind Starfire, who groaned internally.

The Tamaranean heard the familiar rushing of wind through fabric, and her instincts intervened. As she moved to duck, fueled almost exclusively by a burst of adrenalin, Brave shifted her stance from one foot to the other. It was a good thing the close-quarters mage was light on her feet.

Her foot connected with the head of the Elemental Rage just after Starfire ducked to avoid the enemy's energy encased fist. She almost wondered if it would have appeared comical were the exchange of blows to have been viewed in a motion slower than that in which she bore witness. The look on the evil mage's face would probably be considered "priceless" just before and after Brave's foot made contact with it.

With a low growl of frustration and anger, Starfire, now positioned underneath her enemy, slammed her forearm into Rage's gut, sending the mage soaring upward from the force of the alien warrior's mighty strike as a fly would when struck with a swatter of insects.

"Nice!" Brave cheered as she thrusted a fist in Starfire's direction. The Tamaranean had seen the exchange between Beast Boy and Cyborg enough times to understand what it was, so she hesitated only a moment for her surprise at seeing such an odd action from Raven before she connected her fist to the mage's. Apparently it was some form of expressing camaraderie amongst humans.

And, with that, Brave was off, running in Affection's direction to assist the purple-clad mage in facing another clone.

"Starfire!" came Raven's voice, though from a different direction, and said alien girl turned to see her sword soaring at her encased in a film of black energy, courtesy of Timid a dozen yards back. Catching the handle-first blade and hearing the familiar rush of wind, Starfire tumbled backwards. The clone she had just sent flying landed on the ground with enough force to crack it and form a downward indentation in the rock, though the mage herself appeared unharmed.

Rage, clearly furious, then launched herself at Starfire, and the Tamaranean could barely get her sword up in time to block the ferocious mage's glowing fist, though it still managed to push her back a few inches.

It would seem she had angered her foe greatly.

* * *

Beast Boy was ashamed to admit that he was rather useless in this fight. With his left arm at less than 100% ability and his current lack of any form of supernatural ability, all he was really able to do was help defend Timid as she offered the group long distance support in the form of hurtled boulders that were aimed to either hurt the enemy or simply distract them.

Being useless was something the changeling quickly became frustrated with. Beast Boy wanted nothing more than to leap into battle with teeth bared and swords flashing if nothing else. But more than that, his limbs had an odd itch in them, as if they were pleading for him to mutate and transform him into a beast that could quickly gain some advantage on this battlefield.

He could turn into a cheetah and assist Zippy as his friend, a friend in a new wicked form of his own that Beast Boy had quickly dubbed 'Assassin Zippy', chased and traded blows with a Rage that seemed to be moving two speeds faster than the rest of them. Though, that acid dripping from Zippy's ridge spikes might give him pause in getting too close to the transformed lizard. If that didn't work, though, he could turn into a pterodactyl or some other large creature of flight and assist either Rude or Knowledge, both of whom were engaged in brutal aerial combat with two Rages. He could even turn into an ape and assist Timid in her ranged warfare as she threw large boulders at any and every target that came within her range. Or maybe he could turn into an indestructible gelatinous mass and absorb one of the Rages into himself when they least expected it, not letting them go until they passed out from lack of oxygen.

An image of a creature with thick armored skin and four arms seemingly made of the blade of a scythe then flashed through Beast Boy's mind, but the changeling quickly pushed that thought down the instant it surfaced. The Rak'naw had been powerful during the brief moment in which he had taken the form of one those few weeks ago, one of the most thrilling creatures he'd ever had the pleasure of turning into. But, he would not take that form in this fight even if he had the power to do so. The consequences were too unknowable and potentially disastrous for him to risk. If the creature had rendered a rampaging Raven immobile in just a few short moments, what would happen were one to appear within her own mind?

Beast Boy couldn't know, so he wouldn't have hazarded a chance even if he'd had is powers.

All of this proved irrelevant, however, seeing as how he was sidelined and could do nothing but deflect a few flying rocks that came back their way courtesy of a few of the battling Rages, clones or not, whom Timid saw fit to assault with her own hurtled chunks of stone. The single Shamshir Beast Boy held in his right hand felt painfully inadequate, he couldn't help but think as he sent another rock sailing wide with a quick slash. His second weapon rested dutifully on his back, but he didn't yet trust his faulty left hand in wielding anything with any sort of point to it. His fingers could lose their grip on the weapon mid-swing and send the blade in a direction most undesired—say towards one of his friends. So, he had to settle for aiding Timid one-handed as the rest of the group slowly but surely seemed to be gaining ground in this fight.

It had all started just as he and Brave had arrived. In fact, things turned when Starfire managed to defeat one of the two Rages who'd been ganging up on her by pile driving it into the ground. Upon their arrival, Brave had gone to assist, thankfully saving Star from a presumptively fatal blow from the other half of the tag-team, and was now helping Affection finish off another Rage, probably a clone if the red-clad mage's specialized use in barriers was any indication. Turning the odds of numbers on their enemy certainly seemed to be helping, at least for a time.

But, then Rude fell to her powerful aerial combatant. Though she had managed to defeat her foe, she too was in no condition to continue fighting, left unconscious in the wall of one of the small mesas just off the battlefield that would have reminded Beast Boy surprisingly of Africa were the landforms not made of the same stone of a dead gray color that all landmass in this part of Raven's mind possessed.

And, then Starfire had nearly fallen. It hadn't been difficult to see her exhaustion, and that exhaustion had been concerning Beast Boy since Brave had teleported them to the group—she'd said something about conduits being two-sided, but most of the explanation had gone over Beast Boy's head. Only when Starfire had actually dropped her blade did the changeling realize just how tired she really was. She hadn't even been swinging the weapon when it had fallen from her grasp. She'd simply lost her grip on it and then collapsed onto a knee, breathing in ragged breaths as her shoulders sagged low. She hadn't been able to defend herself when her opponent held a hand to her face and blew her backwards with a point blank gust of wind.

"Starfire!" Beast Boy was only vaguely aware that it was his voice calling out as he watched her fly backward and skid to a halt nearly a dozen yards back. She lay their frighteningly limp as her enemy approached with a snarl and the obvious intent to kill. The changeling somewhat recalled turning to Timid, words of pleading for her to help on the tip of his tongue as he wouldn't make it in time, when he realized she was already melting into the ground.

As both Timid and Rage approached Starfire in their own ways, a shrill and enraged screech informed the combatants and onlookers alike that Zippy had bared witness to the continued assault on Starfire and had not taken to it kindly. He veered from his path in pursuing the Swift Rage and instead charged full speed for the Elemental Rage with a frightening display of ferocity. His previous opponent moved to follow but was instead intercepted by Brave and three of her own clones who, though not as fast individually, were able to keep her on her toes through interpersonal coordination.

The Elemental Rage, seeing the incoming danger thundering her way, quickly shifted her attention from the defenseless Starfire to the 500 pounds of rampaging lizard that was closing in fast. As she parried Assassin Zippy's clawed strike with a glowing hand, though she was pushed back a couple inches, Timid rose from the ground beside Starfire while their enemy was distracted. They vanished into the ground in reverse fashion, Rage none the wiser of their escape.

Beast Boy was relieved when the pair rose beside him, and he hastily knelt down to check on his fallen friend. With the back of his mind telling him to thank Happy the next chance he got when she intercepted an incoming Rage, he helped Timid roll Starfire over and took in a heavy breath of relief when the Tamaranean groaned in pain as the action jarred her obvious injuries.

"Star!" he breathed out, "Are you alright?" It was a rather stupid question, he knew, but he had to ask. Starfire grimaced lightly as one of her hands rose to rest above her abdomen.

"I-I'm fine." she gritted out, though her uncharacteristic use of a conjunction told Beast Boy that this was certainly not the case.

Back in battle, Zippy was relentless in his assault of the Rage who had wounded Starfire so severely. The mage had no time to breath between dodging one swipe to another. She barely even had time to do that. She tried blasting him off of his feet with a gust of wind, but he was so heavy that it really only served to slow his next strike. She couldn't get close enough to use her hands without running the risk of being eviscerated by the enraged lizards claws, and any fire she threw at Zippy was simply deflected by his hard reptilian hide.

When one such blast hit Zippy in the face, however, the normally small reptile had seemingly had enough of the mage's ranged combat tactics, because he returned it with his own fireball. The ball of flame took the mage by surprise after he had resorted to melee confrontation for so long and struck her in the shoulder. She would have been thrown to the ground if Zippy hadn't taken the opportunity to cross the distance between them while her guard was down and stabbed her in the chest.

As that Rage disintegrated, Happy and Affection finished off another. They had been battling two on one since Happy had distracted their enemy from going after Starfire, Timid, and Beast Boy. For the most part, their opponent seemed to focus on defensive tactics. She would wave a hand through the air and a strip of red energy would be left behind as if it had been drawn in the air. This shields came in handy when deflecting Happy's stone attacks or Affection's fists.

This ended, however, when Affection managed to catch the mage's wrists, and Happy didn't hesitate before making an uppercut motion in the air. The ground beneath the clone reacted to her command, and a pillar shot upward to strike the clone in the chin. The blow lifted her off her feet, but the clone disintegrated before she hit the ground.

The victory was short lived.

"Watch out!" came Knowledge's shout of concern, but Happy didn't turn fast enough. She saw Rage briefly over her shoulder, and then there was a flash of red light and a scream before Happy was blasted away. Unable to fly even if she had been conscious, she could not catch herself before she was sent over the edge of the platform.

Affection, after watching her comrade fall, turned to the new assailant. Somehow, she could just tell that this was no clone of Rage's. This was the twisted counterpart herself. When Rage turned her four red eyes to the mage clad in purple, Affection thought she was about to follow Happy into the abyss below the floating pathways, to be defeated in another battle, but a sudden shadow above them brought those thoughts to a sudden halt.

Rage ducked and strafed backwards just before Knowledge, who had been unable to stop the mage whom she had just been battling from assaulting the now fallen Happy, landed where she had been. Knowledge threw her arm out, and Rage took to the air to dodge the blast of black smoke that wrapped itself around the embodiment of intelligence's arm from inside her cloak and shot forward. The yellow-clad mage took to the air in continued pursuit.

Affection would have said Rage was fleeing were it not for that grin that hadn't faded since the battle had begun.

Unaware that another of their comrades had been defeated, the attentions of Beast Boy and Timid were drawn when the clone who had been battling against Brave and two of her clones—one had apparently been destroyed—veered for their small group.

Alarmed, Beast Boy rose to his feet with his shamshir well in hand to defend Starfire who also tried to stand. Both of their actions were proven moot when a black barrier rose from the ground in front of Beast Boy and surrounded the three companions, and the incoming clone's fist struck it instead of the changeling. Unsurprised by this turn, the clone opened her fist to lay her hand on the barrier and mirrored the action with her other. Sparks flew as she battled against the wall of black energy, but, eventually her hands seemed as thought they began to eat away at the barrier. Beast Boy took a step back and readied his shamshir as, slowly, her hands began to slip through the barrier as though it had been liquified.

But, she was so distracted by her efforts to get through the barrier and get to them, the Swift Rage clone didn't notice Zippy come up behind her. With her hands now stuck in the barrier, she realized too late her mistake. She was defenseless and unable to move when he raised his claws, and she too turned to dust when the lizard stabbed her in the back.

The enemy now gone, Timid lowered the protective shield, relieved by the intervention when the clone had made it clear that she would have been able to simply walk through the barrier. Now on her feet, Starfire approached the large lizard who had now taken down two of their assailants.

"Thank you again, my friend." she said as she placed a hand atop his snout. In turn, an odd rumbling reverberated from Zippy's chest that reminded Beast Boy strangely of the purring of a cat.

"Yeah, Zippy! That was awesome!" the changeling cheered as he joined the injured Tamaranean beside their friend. "One more baddie downed by Assassin Zippy!" The lizard seemed to grin, a little alarming to witness as it displayed his razor sharp teeth, and said something to Beast Boy, his chirps now much lower in his larger form.

But then the battle raging between Knowledge, Brave, Affection, Rage, and what had to be her final clone drew their attention as a small explosion rocked the platform, and Zippy was then running off in that direction. Beast Boy made to run and assist as well, but he stopped when he noticed that Happy was nowhere in sight. He turned to Starfire and Timid and voiced his concern, asking if they had seen where she had gone.

They didn't know either.

* * *

Where had she gone?

Knowledge searched desperately for the Rage she knew to be real as she avoided another explosive strike by the final clone that had yet to be destroyed. One moment, she had been battling the real mage, and then the clone had attacked to distract her, and Rage had vanished while Knowledge was looking the other way.

She growled as she ducked below another strike, the orb of energy the clone summoned in her palm exploding outward with violent force. The yellow-clad mage then thrust her and forward, and lightning erupted from her fingers. Unfortunately, in such close aerial quarters, it was easy enough for Rage to knock her wrist aside and send the attack harmlessly wide.

Having been thrown by her two remaining clones, Brave then joined the two aerial combatants, surprising their foe enough to land a heel kick on the back of her head. The clone then dove to avoid a fireball, courtesy of Zippy, as the large lizard leapt to catch a then falling and unable to fly Brave.

Instead of continuing the battle in the air, Rage's clone landed on the ground and stood, her arm extended not to those who had just attacked her but to the trio currently standing off to the side. A glowing orb of energy was summoned in her palm. When she released the energy, it wasn't the explosion that now approached the trio as Timid summoned another barrier that worried Knowledge.

It was the figure rising from the ground behind Timid that made her afraid.

She knew she wouldn't be able to warn them. Her voice would be drowned out by the roar of the explosion as it neared them. As she made to fly for them, though, she was stopped by the clone who had taken to the air after her attack. Knowledge was forced to avoid an uppercut as the clone flew up from below and watched from her helpless distance as her view of the titans within the dome soon became obstructed by the explosion that crashed upon the barrier like water on rock. What she saw before the dome was overcome was Rage, anticipating the use of the protective barrier that would keep her safe and the attack that served to distract the titans from her presence. She raised a hand that became encased in a glowing, red film of energy.

And now Timid had essentially sealed them in with her.

* * *

The roar was deafening as the fiery explosion washed over the protective shield, and beast Boy fought the urge to clap his hands over his sensitive hears. He noticed out of the corner of his eye how Starfire flinched back at the sight of the fire that now surrounded them. He thought this odd, as he had never seen her shy away from fire before, but then those sensitive ears of his picked up an odd and horrifying sound that drew his thoughts from this matter. The sound was almost like the breaking of bones and a pained, surprised gasp that followed, and the changeling turned.

He wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Timid stood stock still, eyes wide and head reared back as her mouth was agape in silent agony. The dome around them began to fade as her concentration on it broke, but by then the explosion was already dissipating. Their friend clad in gray coughed, a horrible sound escaping her as blood sprayed with her breath. More blood filled her mouth, and it seeped out of the corners of her lips to slide down her pale chin.

Because sticking out of her stomach was a hand, covered in her blood and glowing red with a sinister energy.

Rage stood behind Timid, had impaled the mage as though her hand was a blade, and she wore that cracked grin as her gray-counterpart's blood dripped from her own fingers. Timid's eyes faded to white as her arms fell limp at her side, and Rage ripped her arm out of her back, blood spraying with the action. Timid fell to her knees, eyes empty as she began to fall forward.

She turned to ash before she even struck the ground, and tears slipped down the cheeks of a stunned Starfire as she and Beast Boy watched.

. . .

The changeling, on the other hand, saw red, and it wasn't just because of the crimson starlight that once again reached them as the dome collapsed the rest of the way. He had thought Timid had protected them from the real danger, but it had only been a decoy, something to draw their attention as the real threat snuck up behind them.

And now Timid was dead.

Beast Boy screamed in a fit of uncontrollable rage as he charged this enemy who was so much stronger than he, especially without his powers. He didn't care. He just wanted to hurt this _thing_, to kill it without mercy as it had just done to a piece of Raven.

Rage dodged the wild slashes of his lone shamshir with ease, not even forced to deflect them with magic as she moved too quick for him to keep up with the single blade. Then, as if she was taunting him, she side-stepped a lunge and stood close, as though she was saying he wouldn't even be able to hit a stationary target at this range. She expected him to just slash at her again with his sword.

She hadn't expected him to drop that sword to instead throw his fist in her face, but that was exactly what he did. His knuckles connected hard with her cheekbone and sent her reeling back. Dazed, she didn't see the follow up coming until after he had punched her twice more across the face, the final knocking her hood free from atop her head to let it fall to her shoulders.

The sight of Raven's face, despite the four demon eyes that stared back at him, gave Beast Boy pause in his assault, enough pause to allow retaliation. With an expression of pure, unbridled fury, Rage lifted her hand—the same one she had used to stab Timid—to his left shoulder, and her palm became alight with a glowing red energy. It flashed, and the changeling was thrown back a couple yards as though he'd been struck by Plasmus or Cinderblock.

He screamed in pain as he struck the ground and eventually rolled to a stop, his hand clasped tightly to his injured shoulder.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire called as she ran to him, slow in her fatigue and state of injury. She moved to roll him from his side and onto his back, but he rolled onto his stomach before she could, and hurled, emptying his stomach of its lack of contents for the sickening amount of agony the blow had caused him.

Seeing the assault on Beast boy as she continued to evade the clone's attacks, Knowledge too became enraged. She strafed to avoid a lunge and tapped the mage on the shoulder. The clone was sent flying downward, struck by the same unseen force that had caused the team so much grief during their fight with Insane. Extending her arms outward and then thrusting them back in, Knowledge summoned a black crystal. It split the ground and rose directly in the clone's descending path, and the mage became impaled on the pike of black crystal before dissolving into dust.

Knowledge turned and flew for Rage at a speed that was twice as fast as Zippy as he, Affection, and Brave ran to assist as well. Lightning crackled to life in the yellow-clad emotion's palm as she neared her twisted counterpart. Raising the ball of lightning, Knowledge thrust it forward as one would a fist.

Rage simply held her hand up, and the sphere of electricity struck her palm, halting the mage's forward motion, and the two began to battle for control as sparks flew high and wide, charring the blood on the red-clad mage's hand. They stayed their for a moment, stuck in a stalemate with neither end willing to give up their hold on the sphere of lightning that jittered between their open-palmed hands as if it couldn't decide which direction it wanted to go.

That is, they were at a stalemate until a roar sounded, and Rage turned her eyes to see Zippy charging in fast with his claws and jaws at the ready. Her grin actually faded when she was forced to send the ball of lightning to the side and retread to avoid being eviscerated. But, then the lizard lunged again, forcing her to flip over him. On her way over his back, though, her cloak got caught on his spikes and ripped, the acid then beginning to eat away at the fabric.

Rage landed, forced to discard her cloak before the acid reached her as well, and the piece of clothing seemed to sizzle as it was slowly eaten away.

Brave caught up to them then, and Zippy held his clawed hand out to her. She jumped, landing on the offered appendage, and he launched her into the air over their opponent as Knowledge charged in from the side.

Off to the side, Affection joined Starfire and Beat Boy's side, as the changeling rolled back onto his side. His hand was still held tight to his shoulder as he tried to his teeth through the pain and pained groans escaped him. The tendons were bulging in his neck and left wrist for how hard he was clenching his fist and jaw.

"Beast Boy, it's okay, I can help." Affection tried to console him as she knelt down behind him. She placed one hand on his arm and the other, glowing blue with healing magic, over the hand he had pressed to the injury on his left shoulder that hadn't quite healed completely after their battle with Insane. Affection continued to whisper things to him to calm the the agonized changeling, and Starfire pretended not to notice the way the mage caressed Beast Boy's hand with her thumb in an effort to comfort him. The intimate action came from the normally distant mage so naturally that Starfire wasn't even quite sure she knew how to process it.

It wasn't long before Affection had seemingly finished her work, and Beast Boy relaxed, breathing in heavily.

"Thanks." he said wearily to the mage who then gave his hand a comforting squeeze before she helped him sit up. Starfire wondered briefly if he'd even noticed. "So, apparently, getting hit on the shoulder isn't a good idea."

"It would appear not." Starfire helped Affection in assisting the changeling to his feet, and they all turned to the raging battle, none of them really in any position or condition to battle the flying opponent. They were all grounded, Starfire was greatly injured and fatigued near the point of passing out, Beast Boy had the proper use of only one arm, and Affection had no really effective method for ranged attacks. At least Zippy could shoot fireballs at Rage, and one Brave or another could be launched into the air by the others. Knowledge herself was the most outfitted to combat this enemy.

But it would seem she was outmatched. Understanding this, she was forced to take to the air again lest she be defeated, and that left the others behind with Zippy launching fireballs that couldn't hope to hit their target who then became more and more distant.

For a time, Knowledge evaded attack after attack that was thrown at her, but, after everything that had happened in this battle, she was clearly becoming drawn ragged. Her evasions became slower and slower, and she attacked less frequently.

Zippy tried to follow, but they flew back and forth too quickly, leaving him panting beside the group of companions on the ground that now included Brave as well. Knowledge tried to lure Rage past there to give Zippy a clear shot, and he once even got close to nicking her with one of his ridge spine when they flew low enough for him to jump at her. But, Rage caught on quickly to this tactic, and the companions could just tell that this was the end of the battle, Knowledge having exhausted all of her ideas.

And then, in one last ditch effort to succeed, Knowledge had turned, hand crackling with electricity, and shot a lightning bolt at Rage. It was desperate and predictable, and Rage reacted faster than any mortal should have been able to.

She caught the lightning in her hands and then spread them wide. The lightning split at her command, arcing out and back towards Knowledge in an instant. The yellow-clad mage couldn't react quickly enough. When Rage clapped her hands together, the bolts of lightning converged on their target, and Knowledge screamed as she went rigid, her own attack turned on her.

She was falling then, cloak charred and tattered and limbs loose and unresponsive in her unplanned decent.

"Knowledge!" was Beast Boy's worried cry, his concerns only multiplying when it quickly became apparent that she wasn't slowing down And so he ran, pushing his weary legs forward even as they begged for rest. He didn't notice when Affection and Brave vanished. He just know that he could reach Knowledge before she hit if he moved fast enough. He was so focused on his target, though, that he didn't notice an obstacle in his path until he ran into it.

It was a wall: a wall of shadow that was rising from the ground to form a protective shield around him. Raven had certainly done this before, shielded the team in their time of need. But, the last time she had done so to prevent the team from helping _her_ had been when. . .

. . .

Images of red glyphs flashed through Beast Boy's mind, and his eyes snapped back up to Knowledge in time to see her flip in the air and land on her feet, skidding back a couple yards before coming to a stop. She seemed fine. The only difference was her cloak. Now undamaged, it had shifted from a vibrant yellow to a deep blue.

Raven.

She'd come again when they needed her most, when their last hope at defeating Rage had fallen. She seemed to have a knack for intervening in the most opportune times now, but. . . Why did this feel different?

Instead of feeling relieved as he had been before and as he expected himself to feel at the sight of her, Beast Boy was filled with an odd sense of trepidation and unease. The only thing he could chock it up to was that it reminded him of the bad feeling he got in his bones before a particularly violent thunderstorm. Animal senses, he'd come to think of it as, which, given his DNA, was undoubtedly the case.

All he knew was that something wasn't right. Perhaps it was the grin Rage still wore as she looked down on them all from the sky, but. . . No, it was something else.

. . .

There. . .

A low growl, one that was barely audible, even to him. He'd heard it before, he knew. Whatever had happened to their familial link when the team had defeated Trigon, Raven was still his half-demon daughter.

Because it had come from her then too.

Beneath her blue cowl, four red eyes snapped open, and Raven took a step forward, the air around her seeming to rush into her hands. The wind from the blast of shadows she released a moment later would have surely knocked Beast Boy from his feet were it not for the protective shield surrounding him, and the beam struck the flying Rage with the force and speed of an out of control cargo train. Their foe, though, seemed to have been prepared for this, because the beam of energy split as it struck her, its dissipation revealing her outstretched hand as well as that same grin that rarely left her face.

With a snarl, revealing a full set of familiar demonic fangs, Raven took to the air with murderous intent. Rage grinned before snapping with her already extended hand, and flames birthed into existence before her, hurtling towards the mage who was now rapidly approaching the fire in turn.

Just before the inferno overtook her, however, Raven's entire form turned black as if it had been soaked through with ink, and she than shrank until there was nothing left. The flames burned only air, and the mage reappeared in reverse fashion behind Rage, one hand in the air. As if amplifying the limb, a giant arm of shadow extended upward, its fingers ending in sharp points.

Rage actually seemed surprised by this. She strafed quickly as Raven brought the shadow limb down, but she didn't move fast enough to avoid the attack entirely. Two large gashes now marred her right shoulder. With a grunt of pain, the possessed mage dove quickly through the air, leveling out once she was a few feet from the ground to fly parallel to it.

Raven, instead of pursuing, raised her hands. Both of them were enveloped in shadow, and a large chunk of gray rock than made the ground was engulfed in the same shadow about a dozen yards behind her moving target. She then clapped her hands together, and the ground split in half, both halves rising to clap together just as Rage, eyes wide as she noticed this too late, reached them.

The stone slabs burst from within just as the they met, but again a partial blow had been dealt, Rage sent tumbling to the ground in a haphazard fashion unlike anything the companions had seen from her previously. She struck the ground hard, bouncing a couple of times like a skipped stone on a lake before finally skidding to a halt.

Beast Boy couldn't believe it. She was doing it! Raven was doing what they combined couldn't. She was actually fighting Rage head on, had even manage to deal damage to their foe.

So, why did he still have a bad feeling in his gut?

Rage slowly lifted her upper body, movements lethargic as she did so, and her breathing was coming in a little ragged. It was then that Beast Boy was able to notice the bleeding gashes on her right shoulder and her newly bleeding lip and temple. Their enemy was injured. Even if it was only a little, it proved, as the saying went, that their enemy could in fact bleed. She wasn't invincible.

Against his better judgment, Beast Boy turned his attention, tearing his eyes from the fight as the unease in the back of his mind hadn't even dissipated a little with this realization. He wasn't surprised to see that Raven had shielded the others as she had him. But, what did surprise him was the fact that only Zippy and Starfire were present. Brave and Affection had been there before, so where had they gone?

. . .

His surprised green eyes snapped back to Raven, now understanding the terrible feeling in his stomach. He couldn't believe it.

What was she doing?!

She had actually come there? Raven had told them of the dangers of entering her own mind! Why was she risking fighting their enemy in her deteriorating mental condition?

While part of Beast Boy thought that it was only to protect he and Starfire, the other part of him disagreed.

This seemed more. . . desperate, almost, than before. Yes, she'd aided them in battle before, usually through one of her embodiments, but to actually come there after she had expressed how dangerous it was for her. . .

That was when the obvious struck Breast Boy.

Raven was tired.

A headache could be bad enough when it only lasted a couple of hours. But, from what he'd seen before they'd entered her mind a couple of weeks ago(1), Raven had had one killer migraine the entire time they'd been fighting, even before that. He couldn't even imagine what that would be like, the unrelenting pain she must be in.

A growl from Raven drew Beast Boy back to the fight, and he looked up just as said mage dove. Her target—or 'prey' as she in her current condition likely viewed Rage—was vulnerable, injured and moving slowly.

But, she wasn't powerless. Two Rage clones rose from the ground, once more solidifying from liquid rock, and they flew at Raven, banking slightly to enter flanking positions. Raven didn't seem surprised by this.

She raised her hands again, and again they were enveloped in the dark energy of her powers before she thrust them back to her sides. Tiny pieces of rock, each smaller than a penny, were pulled from their places on the ground below the advancing duo and shot upward like bullets. The two clones were forced to veer from their paths lest they become pin cushions for the tiny pebbles. Each was still left with a number of cuts and scratches, unable to veer quickly enough.

Her path now clear, Raven continued straight for her target, not having slowed in the slightest in the face of her previous obstacles. Rage, standing by that time, tensed in anticipation. She placed a hand on the ground beneath her as Raven neared, and leapt back just before the half-demon landed. When she did, it at first seemed like nothing had happened. But, as more and more of Raven's weight was put on the stone, her feet actually started to go _through_ it, almost as if the ground had been turned into some form of thick liquid or gelatinous substance.

Rage drew back as Raven sank farther, finally stopping with her legs knee deep in the ground. Though now immobile, the half-demon opened her mouth as spit out a plume of what looked like black smoke. It engulfed Rage's hand and forearm just before she became out of reach, and the possessed mage grabbed the appendage in pain with her other as she landed.

"Impressive, progeny of Trigon." Her tone was actually rather honest as she stood straight, eyes remaining on the partially imprisoned mage before her. This comment surprised Starfire, though not because it was a compliment. If Rage was simply a corrupted piece of Raven, why would she refer to a shared parentage in such a disconnected manner?

Why specify, 'progeny of Trigon'?

Raven didn't respond to the odd compliment, instead snarling as she attempted to break free of her prison. Any ground she gained was quickly lost when the gelatinous stone pulled her back in. She even tried phasing through it with her powers, but to no avail. She was stuck, it seemed. Still an intelligent mage, even if she did currently seem to be more of a wild animal, Raven realized the pointlessness of her efforts and stopped as the two Rage clones began to circle her in the air above, almost like vultures waiting for their prey to tire out.

They weren't used to fighting this part of Raven, though.

Where the human part of Raven would have relied mostly on counterattacks, Raven's demon side preferred all-out offense, sometimes to a fault. As the clones were still preparing to attack, Raven threw her arms out. Shadow shot from the depths of her cloak, snagging the two Rage clones before they'd even known what she was doing. The shadows whipped them harshly through the air a few times before veering and slamming them into the ground. They left small impact craters by the sheer power behind their forced landings.

Raven raised her arms again, and, the next thing Beast Boy, Starfire, and Zippy saw was fire. And lots of it. It was like a flamethrower had been fired in 360 degrees around her all at once, igniting, again, from within her cloak. It overtook the two clones, engulfing them each in a roaring torrent of fire.

It was very good that Raven was not their enemy, the two observing Titans had silently decided.

Being slammed into the ground may not have defeated them, but, when the fire cleared, both of Rage's clones were nowhere in sight as the shadows slithered back beneath their mistress's cloak. She was left standing, unharmed and deadly, as her vicious gaze turned back to the real Rage in front of her.

"Very impressive." Said mage, unlike Starfire and Beast Boy, was not unnerved by Raven's continued displays of power. She almost seemed. . . pleased by it.

As if not wanting to disappoint, Raven raised her hands palm-down, the appendages tense as if resisting a great force pulling them downward. The ground rumbled for only a moment before a proverbial forest of spikes, each made of the same dark crystal that had almost crippled Beast Boy before, erupted all around her, splitting the stone previously containing them as their jagged forms broke through solid rock.

With a snarl and a series of flourishes of the arms, Raven sent spike after spike flying at her foe, and Rage took to the air. Mostly, she relied on sheer evasive maneuvers to save herself, though she was forced a few times to repel one of the crystals with a blast of magical energy.

Starfire, Beast Boy, and Zippy attempted to shield themselves on instinct when several of the flying crystals, both ricocheted and thrown, crashed into the shields surrounding them. Through this, another of Raven's reasons for the barriers seemed revealed as she hardly seemed to notice in her current state. She had probably wanted to make sure that she, not only Rage, could do no harm to them.

* * *

As expected, the Warden could see them waiting as he approached the cave. The battalion of troops that had accompanied him had stayed back in the clearing with the ferocious Trydimir. The Ophythians were not afraid of it as the members of the cult had been. The lizard men and the giant beast had come from the same world, after all. Even were they to be wary of it, however, his task wouldn't take long.

When he passed, the two figures outside the cave stood rigid, their eyes fogged over and remaining still and unresponsive. The once clear eyes of the Justice League's tracker team simply stared forward as their pursuer, their enemy, passed by them. They stood as sentinels as he approached the ally they had worked so tirelessly to keep from him.

Perfect. The binding had worked without flaw.

The Warden stepped up to the half-breed, seated on the floor of the cave against the rear wall. The mage looked withered, dark circles under her eyes and pale cheeks gaunt with fatigue and lack of nutrition. The byproducts of months of exhaustion while on the run. If the deep creases of concentration molding her brow were any indication, he shouldn't have any troubles from her himself.

She was undoubtedly preoccupied.

From his robes, the Warden drew two small rods, each about half a foot in length. Inscribed on the surfaces were a number of glyphs, each speaking to the magic endowed on the otherwise unimpressive pieces of metal. The time for the signal had come.

Raising the bars, he held them before the half-breed, and three times he tapped them together. They rang with an almost surreal chime, their ghost-like tone bouncing off the cave walls, and Rorden knew they had worked.

Now, he simply had to wait five seconds, and victory would be theirs for the taking. The byproduct of years of planning would finally come to fruition.

* * *

Everything suddenly stopped, even the rampaging Raven, when the sound of metal being rung, almost like metal striking metal, reverberated through the sky. The shear volume of it forced Beast Boy to cover his sensitive ears with a cry of alarm. Twice more, it rang, vibrating the ground each time with its deafening sound.

The third was when everything started to go wrong.

A roar drew Beast Boy's attention backwards to Zippy. Seemingly enraged, he ran at the wall of the dome that was shielding he and Starfire. When ramming into it didn't break him through, he shifted tactics to slashing with his claws, though this succeeded no more in freeing him from his protective prison.

Another roar came from Raven as she charged at her enemy with renewed vigor and ferocity. Whatever that sound had been, it couldn't have been good. It had sent both she and Zippy into a desperate frenzy. Rage simply avoided every shadow-infused strike, each missed attack on Raven's part setting Beast Boy's teeth on edge as his nerves rose higher and higher.

The possessed mage then managed to palm Raven in the gut, a burst of red energy sending her flying back a couple of feet. Not loosing her footing, Raven planted her feet on the ground, lunged forward with a fist raised behind her, and vanished. She reappeared a few feet from Rage, her punch aimed right for her foe's head.

Only, instead of landing, it went right _through_ her foe's head! The Rage illusion vanished, surprising even Raven.

Like a chameleon shedding it's disguise, Rage appeared next to her, calm and composed as if everything had gone according to plan. Raven didn't have the time to react before her enemy placed a hand on the back of her head.

Red sparks flew, and Raven screamed. She screamed a terrible, agonized scream that cut Beast Boy to his core.

"No! Raven!" Starfire had run to the edge of her protective dome, now beating on it to aid Zippy in the effort to be freed despite her state of injury and exhaustion. After a few of her powerful blows, cracks spread from beneath her mighty alien fist, so she continued on. Beast Boy knew he should be doing the same, knew he should stop at nothing to get out and help.

But he couldn't focus on anything but that scream, so filled with pain. In six years of fighting the worst Jump City had to offer, he'd never heard anyone sound like that. It sent a cold shiver of horror down his spine, and the fact that it had come from one of his closest friends, had come from Raven, only made it that much more heart wrenching.

Rage had now lifted Raven by the neck as the half-demon's body was wracked with spasms, and, after a few more moments of screaming, Raven went suddenly, terrifyingly limp and silent, her now normal eyes wide and fingers twitching as if from the after effects of one of Overload's attacks.

"Zippy!" Starfire cried as said lizard's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed mid-slash, landing heavily on the ground with a sickening thud. As this happened, Beast Boy watched as a hole appeared in the dome over his head, spreading rapidly as the shield seemed to disintegrate. The same thing was happening to the other, and it was a matter of seconds before both were gone completely.

But, Beast Boy stood frozen to the spot.

What could he possibly do to help? Raven had been the only one capable of really fighting Rage, and now she was. . .

Another distressed cry drew his attention, and the changeling turned without really feeling himself do so. Starfire was kneeling beside Zippy, a look of utter helplessness on her face as she could only watch as their fallen friend slowly seemed to disintegrate just as Timid and all of the clones had. It started with his tail, moving slowly up his limp form to his head, which soon joined the rest of him in oblivion. Tears escaped Starfire's eyes as she lifted a handful of that ash in her hands, watching as it was picked up and carried by the same empty wind that had taken their foes and then their friend.

Beast Boy felt a cold numbness spread through him as he watched.

Zippy was. . . gone?

. . .But. . . How could that- . . .

He'd wanted to introduce him to Cy and Robin. He'd wanted to show him all the coolest spots in Jump City: the pizza parlor, the arcade. Zippy could have been a member of the Titans! He could have helped them fight crime. He could have helped Beast Boy get into even more trouble around the tower with all sorts of new pranks. He could have joined their group of friends! He. . .

. . .

And now he was gone. . . He was gone, and there wasn't even a body to bury.

The two Titans were permitted no more time to grieve for their fallen friend as the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently, and Beast Boy was knocked from his feet, the air rushing from his lungs in the form of a grunt when he landed on his back.

When the rumbling finally subsided, his eyes snapped over to the other two in the area in time to see Rage place a hand on Raven's back. The mage was sent flying as if she'd been struck, but she seemed to split apart as she flew. The unconscious forms of Knowledge, Brave, Rude, and Affection hit the ground in her place, each lying limp and unmoving.

Above, one by one, those red stars in the sky blinked out of existence. Soon, the only light that remained emanated from the tower in the distance, the ridges of light that rose up its surface now revealed in the absence of the crimson light that had bathed the land from up above. The sky was left empty, and Beast Boy never thought he would hate to see them go. It was as if the the absence of the lights emphasized the absence of Raven herself.

Ahead, Rage then lifted a hand, and the fallen mages strewn upon the ground before her were each somehow transfigured into floating, glowing orbs of the color that made their cloaks—all save for Brave, who was left prone on the ground. And then Rage vanished, the orbs disappearing with her.

Beast Boy stood frozen, unable to comprehend what had just happened in only the past few, short moments.

He had thought she had been exaggerating, even a little. He'd thought things wouldn't, _couldn't_, be that bad. She was merely being her usual, overcautious self, or perhaps it was more of her dry humor.

He should have known better. After all, she rarely made jokes and never with matters so serious. He should have reminded her when she'd come, told her to leave when she'd shown herself there.

Because Raven had told them what would happen were she to personally enter her own mind.

* * *

_**A.N.:**_

_(1) I can't recall if I have ever mentioned this, so I simply will now. Time moves differently in these two realms. Time inside Ravens mind moves slower than time outside of her mind, sort of at a 1:3 ratio. Where several weeks have passed for Starfire and Beast Boy, several months have passed for Raven and everyone else not inside her mind. For every hour inside, three pass outside._

_I was a little sad to discover there was only one review this time. Was last chapter just unspectacular, or was there just no time for anyone to leave their thoughts? I'm sorry if it seems snooty to point this out, but reviews really do inspire me to write, and I love hearing peoples' comments._

_So, please review, and I'll see you all next chapter! :D_


	22. The Assault Begins

A.N.: _I know, four months. Time goes by too quickly on my end! For those who also read my Fullmetal Alchemist story, I will continue it, but I have to put it on temporary hiatus until I finish this story. It's just too difficult to write two stories at once. In switching gears, I keep losing my momentum._

* * *

Arin grunted as he hit the ground, his midsection greatly protesting as he was tossed harshly and carelessly to the forest floor by a large Ophythian soldier—at least a head taller than the rest of them who already stood between seven to eight feet tall. The action jarred the combat specialist's healing injuries more than a little in their mostly non-padded state as he landed roughly on his chest. He would have wrapped his arms around his middle as a reflex to the pain had both appendages not been bound behind his back before he'd returned to consciousness—his movements were further restricted by the bindings on his ankles. On either side of him, two others were dropped to the dirt in a similar fashion: Kate on his left and an unconscious Raven on his right. Each of them was also bound, hands behind their backs as well as ankles bound to keep them from walking or lashing out with their feet with any degree of success.

It seemed these people had known of he and Kate's abilities, Arin noted, because he couldn't break the devices they'd used to subdue him. The advanced technological look of the wrist and ankle bracers brought him to the conclusion they were some sort of prototype, perhaps capable of counteracting any change in energy that would normally come with the use of any kind of superhuman ability. If they got out of this, they should have the League look into Lex Luthor, see if he'd been working on anything of the sort lately.

Grimacing past the pain in his ribcage as he brought his strained breathing under control, Arin glanced around the clearing he and his compadres had been brought to. Around the bound trio, men and women in hooded robes—quite archaically designed robes, at that—bustled around their small camp, gathering supplies and tearing down tents that had been used during their few weeks in the forest while hunting the fleeing supers. A dozen yards from the campsite stood a battalion of Ophythian soldiers, or at least what remained of them. They were no doubt the ones who had been traipsing through the forest in search of Raven and thus the ones the trackers had been fighting this whole time. Behind him, Arin could hear the much heavier breathing of the behemoth of an Ophythian who'd discarded him like a sack of potatoes. Judging by the sound and stability of it, he was probably standing still, no doubt keeping watch to make sure neither Arin, Kate, or the as of yet conscious Raven tried some futile escape attempt.

With their powers restricted as they were, neither Arin nor Kate would be attempting such heroics soon. All they could do was wait and hope these people would slip up, granting a timely opportunity at escaping with Raven, a mage who seemed so integral to their plans.

"When did your people get to us?" Came an angered question from Kate. She didn't give a thought to the large reptilian man standing behind them. Arin turned to see she was addressing a man not far from them who spoke with a hooded woman. By the much more elaborate and detailed designs of the man's robes and the collected fashion in which he gave out orders, the combat specialist could only infer the man was the leader of this group.

As if Kate hadn't spoken at all, the man refused to turn, giving some order to the hooded female figure—she must have been slightly higher in the ranks of this organization than most given her robes were slightly more decorated than most of the others'. Kate did not take kindly to being ignored.

"Hey!" She barked with a vicious snarl—Arin could almost swear her canines were a little sharper than normal, her other teeth sure to follow if she didn't settle down. She amplified the word with a burst of energy that was quickly absorbed into the bracers that bound her rather than taking the form of the forceful gust of wind it would have otherwise.

Even so, every Ophythian soldier in the clearing raised their weapons and turned on her. The much larger Ophythian who stood guard a few paces behind them removed an enormous ax from its sheath on his back and stepped forward, leveling it over the center of Kate's back. Though the fighters were bound and weary, it seemed these soldiers were still anticipating a threat from them. It certainly wasn't stupid of them to assume as much after how many of their people the two had killed over the past few months. On the contrary, Arin would have considered them quite dim if they hadn't expected trouble, but he knew Kate was too exhausted to exert herself any further than she just had. It was a bluff, and a risky one at that.

Her only intention had been to get the man's attention. In this, at least, she had succeeded. Slowly, the man in ornate robes turned from his underling to face Kate. His expression was hidden by the hood that cast a shadow low over his face, but the man's body language spoke of no signs of aggression or anger at her outburst. Arin growled under his breath.

The calm ones always proved to be much more trouble.

"Answer me!" Kate had always had a stubborn persistence, Arin noted to himself. Even when failure was assured, she would struggle and fight, and it seemed now was no different. He'd always admired the trait, even if it could be foolish at times.

"In Asia." the man spoke with a degree of utter calm only one who saw their victory as assured could muster. "Just before you and your companion so foolishly came out here in search of our dear Raven. You led us right to her."

The low growl that came from Arin, a warning that the man should watch his tone, was not silent that time in the face of the condescension in which the man addressed Kate. The combat specialist was bound, yes. He was surrounded by enemy troops who would quickly and easily end him at the first sign of physical threat from him. He probably wouldn't last long at all if he decided to attack.

But, even bound and wounded, Arin could easily kill this man before any of his followers got the chance to stop him. He'd killed plenty just like him before.

As if sensing this dark train of thought from him, Kate nudged his foot with her own to get his attention. After a pause in which Arin matched their enemy's gaze—eyes just barely noticeable beneath the ornate hood—with a defiant and threatening glare, he turned. Noticing the muffled concern in her eyes, he could only assume his own had had begun to change, a precursor to an almost complete loss of control. Understanding he could not allow himself to give in to his anger when the situation was so dire, Arin quickly shut his eyes and bowed his head to touch his brow to the dirt, trying to regain that control through disciplined breathing.

It worked, if only a little, and Kate turned her attention back to their captor.

"How many?" was her next question, and the possibilities of that question's answer terrified her.

They had not been alone in Asia. Along with Ronnie Raymond, Todd Rice, and Oliver Queen—more widely known as Firestorm, Obsidian, and Green Arrow respectively—Arin and Kate had helped train a knew recruit named Cynthia Reynolds, now known under the pseudonym of Gypsy. Their training session had been cut short when word of one of Darkseid's operations in the region had reached the far reaching ears of the Justice League. During the following investigation, Darkseid had done something to the supers, something involving some sort of electric floor, but the group had been cleared medically upon the conclusion of the mission. Shortly afterward, however, Arin and Kate had received the message from Robin requesting the tracker team's aid in searching for his wayward teammate, and no other contact with enemy parties had taken place save for the skirmishes with the lizard men.

Was it possible Darkseid was in league with these people? Had he done something to them beyond simply shocking them with that floor of his or during their subsequent blackout? And, if he had done something, what about Ronnie, Todd, Oliver, and Cynthia? Were they unknowing sleeper agents as well?

Kate's fears were confirmed when the only answer to her question was a twisted smile the hooded man gave, known only by the gleaming of moonlight off his teeth.

"Where are you taking us?" This question had come from Arin, as Kate seemed to distraught in the face of this revelation to continue their questioning. They had to know what these people were planning. The hooded man's eyes returned to him, and Arin, never one to submit, only glared up at him.

After a short pause in which he simply observed the bound super, the man responded with a simple, "Why, we are bringing her home, of course. Well," he laughed as if at his own joke, "her Earthly home, that is."

Admittedly surprised by this turn, Arin could think of nothing else to say.

* * *

Was there a word for it? Was there a word for a time in someone's life when everything was going horribly, tragically wrong? A time when you were flipped on your head and spun until you no longer knew which way was up? If there wasn't, Beast Boy thought there ought to be. There should be a name for the way all sense of feeling had fled his body as though sucked right out of him like air escaping out the hull breach of a spaceship. It left him as nothing but an empty husk as he, shoulders slumped in defeat, simply stared out to the tower in the distance. Rage had taken them there, Raven's fallen incarnations of personality, after they had been unceremoniously and almost laughably beat down.

The most pressing problem, to him at least, was that not all of them had been taken.

And, just as quickly, the emptiness inside the changeling was filled with a sense of anxiety and a dark paranoia only utter defeat could conjure. He turned slowly to observe Brave as she made to sit up from where she'd been tossed to the ground like a rag doll, silently asking himself a simple question: 'why?'.

Why had Brave been left behind when all of the others had been taken?

If he was in his right mind, Beast Boy would have tried to sort through that thought on a deeper level, but his brain felt like a battery that had burst after a power surge. He couldn't form any truly coherent thoughts aside from the seeming correlation between Rage's departing to her leaving Brave, and only Brave, with them. Brave herself had been with them for weeks now, had helped them combat the demon's control and had been severely injured a number of times alongside Beast Boy, Starfire, and Zippy. She'd been a trusted part of the team.

But, Zippy was dead, had turned to ash in Starfire's hands when Raven had been defeated by her own embodiment of rage. The little lizard had been a friend. Beast Boy had become attached to him just as he had the Titans he'd learned to call family over the past few hears. There had been some connection between he and Zippy, though, one the changeling been unable to define. It was strange given how short a time he'd been in their lives, but he'd felt they could actually understand one another, even if Beast Boy couldn't shape-shift again yet.

And as if she had been the only thing giving him life, Zippy had died when Raven fell, and Raven's other embodiments had been rendered unconscious—possibly worse, but he hoped for the best given he'd been unable to check any of them for a lack of pulse before they'd been whisked off. Raven's defeat had been like the tipping of the first domino, taking down each of her interior defenses one by one until even the stars in the sky had blinked out.

So, why was Brave still around and conscious?

Beast Boy didn't realize he was just in shock, perceiving the situation with a less than rational point of view while ignoring the simple fact that deceiving them would have been pointless now. After having helped them for so long, Brave would have been in the perfect position to pull the wool over their eyes but. . .

Hadn't they just lost? What would be the point?

Still, Beast Boy turned and approached Brave on slow, unsteady feet as the injured mage prepared to push herself to her feet. He almost seemed to be a zombie in one of the horror films he so enjoyed for how autonomous and blank his movements and expression were. He reached her before she stood and grabbed the collar of the mage's armor, hauling her up the rest of the way to her feet as he turned her to look at him.

"Why did they take the others but not you?" Beast Boy's voice shook as he spoke, and Brave nearly tried to retreat back a step at the look in his eyes that very nearly resembled that of a crazed animal feigning control.

"I-I don't-" her voice wasn't any steadier than his, but the changeling didn't give Brave enough time to speak before he continued, his words rising in volume.

"Why did they leave you?!" Panic peaked through in his expression that time as he gave her a shake, almost like he hoped doing so would dislodge an actual response from her.

"I don't know!" Brave matched his volume with an earnest defiance, standing her ground but not making a move to push him away either. She knew what emotional shock looked like, and the changeling was displaying classic signs of it—she herself was currently experiencing the same condition, a sense of disbelief and dread filling her as it felt as though she'd been disconnected from everything. One simple thought ran rampant in her mind, hopping around and doing a celebratory tango as if taunting her.

What were they going to do now?

With the combined might of Starfire, Beast Boy, Zippy, and six specialized mages, they had been unable to defeat Rage. With only three of them left, they couldn't possibly hope for a victory. Brave quickly came to the conclusion that there was only one option for what their next step should be. She would have to get Starfire and Beast Boy out of there before they too fell to this demon. She would never forgive herself if either of them died fighting _her_ battle.

"Beast Boy." Starfire's emotionally wavering voice brought both the changeling and Brave from their individual thoughts, and said green Titan turned when the Tamaranean placed a hand on his shoulder. At the sight of her grief for their fallen friend, Beast Boy seemed to return to himself, seeming surprised at his own actions when he returned his gaze to Brave. He took a quick step back, releasing his hold on her armor.

"I-I'm sorry." He gave the breathless apology, but the hoodless mage shook her head.

"No, it's-"

She had been about to verbally dismiss his actions as being those of someone in shock, but she came up short when deep vibrations in the ground beneath their feet drew the trio's attention. Her eyes widened. Alarmed when the rumbling grew steadily louder and more violent, Starfire and Beast Boy readied their weapons, eyes scanning the darkened landscape around them even as Brave stood in a motionless stupor.

Beast Boy was the first to notice it and turn, the subtle shifting in the stone path they'd crossed over that almost made the ground seem alive with movement and the sound that seemed to be a thousand shouts in one as they reached his attuned ears. Starfire turned next and followed his gaze, but Brave, her instincts telling her what the danger was before she'd laid eyes on it, turned slowly. When her fears were confirmed, she felt the unfathomable and blasphemous desire to sink to her knees in defeat. Because what could they do?

But, she was never one to be paralyzed by fear, so she instead turned to action.

"Run. . ." she ordered her friends as she began to step back, moving towards the castle in the distance. It would be the one place they could be even potentially safe. When neither Starfire nor Beast Boy moved to follow, though, transfixed by the shifting landscape before them that seemed to shimmer in its constant form of subtle change, she barked the order louder and with more authority. Turning in surprise, the wide-eyed Titans saw her intent and quickly moved to follow as Brave took off at a sprint for their far-flung shelter.

Washing over the land behind them, thundering across the narrow rocky path, was a wave of endless Ophythian soldiers. It was almost as if the torrent had been previously held at bay by the dam that was Raven's hold over her mind.

And when that dam broke, they came crashing through with a terrible fury.

* * *

Ryuku sat lotus style in the otherwise unoccupied gym of the Titans Tower just off Jump City's coast. It had been a fairly quiet day in the city thus far. Actually, there had been a lot of quiet days since he'd arrived. Ever since the Brotherhood of Evil had been defeated and frozen, there hadn't been many villains running around who warranted the help of the Teen Titans. The larger threats were always handled by the Justice League. There was talk among Robin and Cyborg, though, about a newly surfaced villainess and weapon-for-hire who supposedly had a connection to one of the Titans' greatest enemies, but little else was known.

Fortunately, all of this free time had given Ryuku time for training and meditation, and he spent every day honing his skills and senses. In the quiet of the gym, he emptied his mind and focused on his own breathing and life force as it cycled through him. In his mind, he corrected subtle flaws in his forms and in the execution of his attacks from the katas he'd just run through and made mental notes for corrections.

The samurai's meditation broke swiftly, however, when a sound breached his consciousness, a subtle yet familiar and telltale series of beeps coming from the edge of the practice mat where he'd discarded his shirt and shoes before his workout. For the briefest of moments, he amused the thought that he was simply hearing things. It had been almost three months since they'd gone after the Titan, and he'd heard nothing from the Tracker Team's combat specialist since their departing. But, of course, that silence was bound to be broken at some point.

Eyes snapping open as he quickly unfolded his limbs, Ryuku quickly threw the thought aside and jumped to his feet, running over to the small bundle of his personal effects. It took only a moment of rifling through his pockets to find the item he sought, a small receiver that could fit in the palm of his hand. The light on its face flashed to accompany the beeps it gave off, and Ryuku paid strict attention to the series of letters it rattled off in coded patterns.

Long short short. Short, short short short long, short long... Already, the samurai could tell this wasn't the beginning of the message, so he waited, knowing it would be repeated soon. After a moment of sitting in expectation, he was proven correct when the pause between letters was much longer. When it started again, he focused, translating the code in his mind as each letter came in.

The complete message was not one he had been hoping for.

Translated, the complete encryption meant "Mission failed. Evac Jump City." Bushido simply sat for a moment, stunned and dumbstruck. Had he understood the message correctly? There was only one person this coded message could be from; only one person had the frequency. Was it really possible they had not succeeded.

Snapping himself out of his daze, Bushido jumped back up to his feet and ran out the door without giving his state of partial undress a second thought. As quickly as he could, he ran through the tower's winding halls and staircases until he finally came to the main room. Bursting through the doors with little tact, the three other Titans who made up this temporary team turned from their card game, a card game Jynx appeared to be winning if Robin's and Cyborg's looks of irritation were any indication.

At the silent samurai's grim expression and hasty demeanor, Robin stood, his own features turning to the serious countenance he wore when taking up his station as their leader.

"Trouble?" He was ready to spring into action at a single word from the warrior.

"We must evacuate the city," the swordsman explained shortly, and each Titan balked. Really, he shouldn't have been surprised by their confusion. He probably would have gotten the same reaction if he burst through the doors saying he had seen Cinderblock, but the villain had been turned bright pink (which would first require he be thawed out).

"We gotta' what?" Now Cyborg had stood as well, followed swiftly by Jynx, and it was now three titans giving their normally silent companion a look that said 'explain now'.

"Evacuate," Ryuku reiterated simply. When they opened their mouths to verbally ask for more information, he continued before they could get the words out. "Raven has failed to contain the beast. We must evacuate before it returns."

Their expressions drew grim, particularly those of the mage's two present crime fighting companions. Cyborg seemed to have lost all ability to stand because he collapsed back into his chair, his expression dazed in disbelief. Robin, however, seemed to take the news on a rather confrontational note because he approached Ryuku quickly, using his slightly greater height as an intimidation tactic as he glared down at the honorary Titan.

This news about their dear friend had not been what they had hoped for.

"How do you know this?" Robin gritted out, fists clenching at his sides, no doubt planning to floor Ryuku if he did not answer well enough.

"I am in contact with the Justice League's tracker team. Just a moment ago, I received a message from the operative, Raptor, via a code transmitted through a wireless receiver." Despite the clear threat of physical harm should he fail to explain himself as well as his temporary leader desired, Ryuku's voice and body posture remained calm, a facet to his personality that had come from years studying the discipline of martial arts. "We must evacuate the civilians and prepare a counter attack before the demon arrives."

"Is it possible you may have decoded it wrong?" was Robin's next growled out question. The calm stare he received was the only answer he needed to understand he was simply grasping at straws. If the Boy-Wonder had not been wearing a mask, Ryuku was sure he may have seen panic flash through his eyes before he turned, running his hands through his gelled hair as he proceeded to pace about. Cyborg had not moved from his chair, wide eyes staring forward in his shell-shock.

It was another moment before Robin had collected his thoughts enough to give his orders.

"Alright, let's move. Cyborg, I need you to contact the Justice League. Explain the situation and ask for immediate assistance. I'll talk to the Mayor and the police, get as much assistance from them we can. Jynx and Bushido, head into the city to prepare to assist in the evacuation. If this is true, we could be in for the fight of our lives here. Move out!"

Ryuku nodded and turned, joined by Jynx in exiting the room. Before Robin left, however, he approached Cyborg, still paralyzed by his shock over the news and his fear for their friends, and placed a hand on the big man's metal shoulder. It was another moment before he turned, an understandable and shared fear in his eyes.

"What about B and Star?"

Robin had not wanted to think about that, though he had subconsciously wrapped his finders around a ring in his pocket nonetheless. His answer was far from adequate in either Titan's minds.

". . . I don't know."

* * *

Warehouse District of Gotham City:

"I understand. We will finish here and return with as little delay as possible." With that short response, J'onn ended the transmission, casting a cursory glance up to the storm clouds that continued to drench the city in water. It was unfortunate that his search would have to be put on hold for some indeterminate span of time, but the matter to which Gotham's Dark Knight had referred to sounded serious. Whatever troubled the League was no doubt more troublesome than the wayward actions of the escaped Human Flame. J'onn turned to his comrade, Ronnie Raymond, who had been the one to discover the Flame's recent actions in this area of Gotham City. At hearing the exchanged words, however, Firestorm had turned to the green martian with an expression of great intrigue, not having heard the other half of the conversation.

"The League has called an emergency council. We must end our task here and return to the Watchtower." J'onn continued on without pause upon saying this, turning his back on his ally as he intended to complete their search for any information on the Michael Miller, who had been causing trouble in the area.

The martian didn't know turning his back would bring his end. Comrades, for all their benefits when it came to combating the worst criminals the world had to offer, were also a great potential weakness, a vulnerability, and it was this vulnerability that would cost J'onn everything.

He detected the potent change in the smell of the rain quickly, and he heard the click of a lighter, but he hadn't pieced together what those two things meant in correlation until it was too late.

As J'onn spun around to face this foe, he was met only by the image of Firestorm, one hand holding the energy of his matter manipulation as the other was outstretched. From that outstretched hand, flew the lighter, already lit. And when that lighter reached the air within two feet of the Martian, the flame appeared to ignite the very rain that would normally smother it, rain in which the Hydrogen and Oxygen that formed its molecules had been changed and shifted into a concoction of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon that had now drenched the extraterrestrial superhero.

Ethanol.

The fire spread rapidly, and within a few seconds was feeding on the superhero's flesh with a ravenous hunger as though he had personally wronged it at one point in his life. J'onn gave an alarmed and panicked cry as he stumbled back, telling his body to fly out of the reach of the danger yet knowing it couldn't as the flames sapped his powers. Not only could he not get away for the excruciating pain that was crippling him, the rain above him was continuously transmuted into ethanol, fueling the fir to burn even hotter. There was no escape for him, and so he turned to his assailant.

"Why?" he implored desperately, but Ronnie Raymond only stared, giving not the grim or pained frown of someone betraying one of their own or the sinister grin of one who was glad to do so. He simply stared, slack-faced as he made to murder one of his own teammates, and J'onn knew he would not speak, give answer as to why he had done this. Something was not right with him.

J'onn's question was answered with a laugh, however. Not from Firestorm, but from another. It was familiar, all too familiar to the martian who had made his home on Earth after the destruction of his own people. He did not have to turn, for the owner of that laugh was soon standing above the hero, another figure a few paces behind him. A blue mask. A yellow cowl. A golden staff.

"Libra." J'onn grimaced, knowing the end of his life was near. He was weakened, rendered powerless by the flames that still burned, fueled by the powers of his own ally. Behind the villain stood another. Michael Miller, the Human Flame. It couldn't be a coincidence that the man J'onn and Firestorm had come to search for was now standing there. It would seem this was to be a 'show and tell' of sorts.

"Indeed, my Malacandran friend." Even through the mask, J'onn could see the man's grin. He raised the staff, an elemental weapon of fire, and readied it. "Do you have any last words?"

J'onn coughed, wheezing on what little air would come to him as he looked up at his foe from the flat of his back, skin cracked and bubbling as fire continued to consume him.

"Whatever you are planning, Libra, you an yours will fail." And so, he gave his parting words. "Your kind has always failed, and you will continue to fail. There can be no other outcome."

Libra only grinned the sinister grin that had been missing from Ronnie Raymond's face upon the hero's unexplainable betrayal. The criminal mastermind raised the golden staff further, light from the dim street lights of the factory district glinting off of it, a vicious glint that was reflected in the eyes of its wielder. And so, Libra brought the weapon down, impaling the Martian Manhunter through the chest, and the flames eating away at the martian's skin were met by a fire that ate away at him from the inside.

As the vessel of Firestorm lowered his hand and ceased his matter manipulation, ensuring Libra would not also be caught by the flames, Ronnie Raymond watched from within himself, a caged prisoner inside his own body, as he was instrumental in the downfall of one of the Justice League's founding and most powerful members.

And all he could do was scream the name of his friend in his mind, for his body would not respond to his commands to attack the villain who had just ended the Martian Manhunter.

* * *

They had soon enough reached the chasm that surrounded the sky-reaching structure that was seemingly formed of the gray rock beneath their feet, and had thus reached the bridge of light that gave safe passage over the empty, bottomless moot below. Brave took the lead, her companions crossing over the bridge with only a moment's hesitation after they saw it would take her weight: she hadn't even slowed before running full speed onto something that looked like it shouldn't even have a physical presence. And yet, the light seemed to act like some form of glass, an undoubtedly sturdy glass, as it supported the force of their combined weight without creak, groan, or complaint.

Naturally reaching the end first, Raven's embodied courage approached a large glowing barrier that had risen unfathomably high into the air and surrounded the tower. Rather than approach the barrier directly, she made her way towards a pedestal near the corner of the bridge, muttering something to herself along the way about hoping something would still work, but her companions were still too shell-shocked by previous events to really take notice. Stepping up to it, Brave placed her hand atop a glowing orb faceted into the pedestal's surface. The orb reacted to her touch as though she had poured life into it, and it glowed brighter at the contact from its master—or at least a piece of its master.

The orb's light flared blindingly before traversing down the pedestal, across the bridge to the barrier, and spreading up the wall like water expanding out over a beach, expanding until it rose two dozen feet into the air and matched the width of the bridge. The wall shimmered for a moment before breaking at the top, seemingly disintegrating. Slowly, the portion of the barrier that had glowed with the orb's light followed suit, an unseen substance eating away at it until the space before the Titans was empty. Taking that as their cue, Beast Boy and Starfire, both slightly stunned by the display, ran ahead as Brave removed her hand from the pedestal to join them.

Or at least, that was what they thought she would do.

Only when he heard the wall begin to form again yet only heard two sets of footsteps including his own did Beast Boy realize too late what the mage was planning to do. His feet stopped in their tracks as he brought himself to a swift halt, and he whirled around, eyes wide, to find Brave had not removed her hand from the pedestal as he thought and was instead restoring the wall to its former solid state.

With herself still on the other side.

In the distance behind her, the ground shimmered and squirmed like some grotesque sephilopod as the army of Ophythian soldiers thundered closer and closer to the bridge, a wave of claws and teeth and steel weapons rolling across the gray land to eviscerate anything in its path.

"Brave!" the changeling called out to her in protest as he retraced his steps to her. But, the wall had reformed before him by the time he reached it, and for his speed he was instead forced to brace himself on its surface to keep from running headlong into it. Desperately, his hands flew across the barrier of light that seemed almost liquid to the touch, searching desperately for any weakness he could exploit to open even a small breach in the shield and pull her through.

He had seen too many of them fall, these pieces of Raven, and it hurt him each and every time. He had even, though he still tried to keep it from his mind, killed one of them himself, though she had come back to life shortly afterward. Brave was now the only active part of Raven's mind, the others captured and incapacitated after Rage had split Raven on the battlefield following her victory. Brave was the only piece of Raven to still be allowed to wonder freely and still capable of fighting back.

If Brave didn't make it. . . What would happen to Raven?

Despondent, as the aqueous light would not give in to his demands, Beast Boy could only turn his gaze to Brave, the task of searching trading from his hands to his eyes as he silently asked why she had done this. She said nothing, just stood there with a look that seemed to apologize without words, so the changeling figured he should vocalize his question if he wanted to understand.

"What are you doing?" Beast Boy asked, pleading with her to lower the shield again, to come to her senses. What could she possibly be planning by staying out there? Brave only shook her head to answer the question he had not asked, her penitential gaze not straying from his as she removed her hand from the pedestal that would reopen the gate. The unwavering determination in her eyes, despite the apology they were giving, caused a painful tightening in the changeling's chest, and he felt a stinging grow behind his eyes—in hindsight, his instincts had understood what he'd refused to believe.

Only when Starfire came up beside Beast Boy did Brave tear her eyes away.

"I'm not coming," Brave had never really been one for words.

"But why?" the Tamaranean princess implored their friend, already emotional herself after Zippy's death as her eyes strayed to the wave of enemy soldiers that surely spelled death to any who faced them.

Especially to any who faced them alone.

"I do not understand?" Starfire returned her eyes to their friend, a friend who had essentially caged herself in with the approaching army.

"Someone has to buy you time. . . And now I'm all that's left," Brave explained with a grim frown, and Beast Boy's mind again turned back to the others, taken by Rage, and to Zippy who had slowly turned to ash before their eyes. She was all that was left, all that remained of Raven's internal defenses.

And it seemed she would first defend Beast Boy and Starfire before herself despite this fact.

"This barrier is strong, but it is by no means impregnable. Given enough time, they would break through and storm the tower, and then all of this would have been for nothing." Brave continued. "I can hold them off here, slow them down. This bridge works as a nice funnel and should keep them from overwhelming me." She added a 'too quickly' in her head, though they were not words she would ever voice here.

"But there's too many." Beast Boy pleaded with her to see reason. If they all remained together, they could get through this quicker, before the enemy broke through the shield. The Titans had always come through for each other when they fought together, and this was no different. Together, they could win!

But, Brave did not submit.

"They can't activate or deactivate the barrier, so they'll be forced to attack it to break through." It was as if she hadn't heard him as she continued to voice her plan and her reasoning. "I can hold them off, keep them from doing so for as long as I can. Then I'll destroy the bridge and catch up to you. Less time for them to find a different method of getting here this way." When Beast Boy opened his mouth to speak again, she cut him off in a hasty tone of voice, ever aware of the danger fast approaching from behind.

"I can buy you time enough to reach the third floor. There, you will find the portal that will take you out of here. You've seen it before, Beast Boy, so you know what to look for. And if you find Rage, just run. There is no hope for a victory now, so you must do as I say."

"No!" Beast Boy blurted, having grown frustrated with her insistence on keeping him from getting a word in. Brave's jaw clenched as her mouth drew into a tight line and her brow crinkled, though whether in concern or her own frustration, the changeling didn't know.

"We won't leave you here! Not with that!" Beast boy thrust a finger out to the army of lizard-men approaching from behind, maybe half a mile away now. Already, his enhanced vision could pick out the forms of larger, monstrous creatures the group had yet to encounter. "You're coming with us. The Titans have always fought better together, and you know that. If we split up now, we'll weaken ourselves."

"Beast Boy." Brave spoke his name to interrupt him, but he would hear none of it. She had said her piece, and now it was his turn.

"I know you think Star and I have to come before you, that this is all somehow your fault and that you dragged us into all this, but we came here willingly!" He indicated Starfire and himself to aplify what he was saying, the Tamaranean retaining a silence born of understanding in this argument. Beast Boy stepped closer to the barrier, placing a hand on it to remind himself where it was.

"Beast Boy." Brave tried again, visibly resisting the urge to look beside herself to the advancing force of enemy troops, but the changeling refused to hear it again.

"We've done all of this for _you_, so why do you think we would leave now, abandon you here to fight that alone?" It was clear the question was a rhetorical one, giving an answer in its undertone that said they would not. "We won't-"

"Garfield." To further get his attention, Brave placed her hand on the wall of light in such a way that their hands would have been touching if it weren't for the barrier between them, and Beast Boy drew silent at the sound of his real name, a name he scarcely heard anymore. "There's no time to argue." Her eyes begged him to do as she asked, even as his begged her to come with them, to give up this suicidal plan.

She still wouldn't give in, though, and he knew he had failed.

"Go." With a look that said this was for them, Brave removed her hand from where Beast Boy's rested on the opposite side of the barrier that separated them and backed up—towards the growing thunder that approached her from behind, the changeling couldn't help but notice.

Beast Boy pretended not to hear her, defiantly leaving his feet planted to the ground like a toddler disobeying a rule they knew they should follow. It was childish, he knew, but some part of him hoped that, if he was stubborn enough, she would change her mind.

She did not.

"Go!" Brave reiterated, her harsh undertone making him flinch, for it told him she would not reconsider. Defeated, he hung his head, his shoulders trembling as he fought every urge inside of him that told him to tear the barrier between them to shreds, no matter how long it took, and fight beside her. He fought every instinct in his body that told him not to leave her there, and it was then that a simple thought entered his mind, one that cause a more painful tightening in his chest.

Without the forest green hood, she looked just like Raven.

Beast Boy's hand curled into a tight fist, claws digging into the palm of his hand, and his right fang finally tore through his lip with how hard he was clenching his jaw and teeth, leaving the disgusting metallic taste of blood in his mouth as a small trail of blood made its way down his chin.

He lowered his hand from the wall.

"Give 'em hell," was all the changeling could bring himself to say before he turned and ran without another look back, heading into the tower that held both their foe and their escape.

He wished he'd been able to leave his heart behind as he did so, as the thing pounded painfully away in his chest. In leaving Brave there, was he abandoning Raven? He couldn't stop himself from wondering, and the thought tore at his insides that threatened to rebel against him with every step he took that brought him farther away from her. He ignored the small part of him that knew Brave was lying when she said she would meet up with them later, shoved that part of him into the pit of his stomach to drown it in his nausea.

Behind him, Starfire lingered, her eyes locked on Brave who stood on the wrong side of the protective shield that surrounded the tower, and the mage stared right back, meeting her gaze with certainty and determination. The Tamaranean understood why she had to do it. But, everything in her wanted nothing more than to be on the other side of that barrier, with her friend, ready to face down the danger that was growing frighteningly close. Another few minutes, and they would be upon her.

Starfire couldn't, she knew. Brave was doing this to give them time, time they needed to get out alive while they could. But a frightening thought gave Starfire pause.

These embodiments of Raven had been able to recover after death, reappearing inside their own realms after they had been defeated in combat. But. . . Something terrible had happened to Raven just a short while ago, and the Tamaranean simply didn't know if that was possible anymore. The fact that Brave had not mentioned this ability to restore herself to ease either hers or Beast Boy's concerns only added to the terrifying thought that, were the mage to die here, she just might die for good. What would happen to Raven if a piece of her was to die?

Brave's strategy to destroy the light bridge before the enemy overtook her and then rejoin the group. . . Starfire saw through it as an attempt to give them false hope—it was a ploy to get them to follow along with her plan, to get them to safety at any cost . Battle was too unpredictable to hope for such a contingency. The odds that Brave would be given a chance to break away from combat to both destroy the bridge and lower the barrier were slim to none.

And she knew Brave understood this fact. The grim line her mouth had drawn into as the mage returned her gaze was all the proof Starfire needed to be sure of that. She was asking Starfire to ignore this, asking her to look over the fact that she was leaving a friend behind to die and make sure Beast Boy continued with their plans after it happened. Starfire wanted nothing more than to break down, to cry for their friend as she said a silent goodbye.

But, there was no time.

"Starfire. . ." Brave's words were quiet, a quiver to them she had not allowed to show while Beast Boy was present. The Tamaranean did not respond, but the mage could no doubt tell she had her full attention, knew that her mind was locked in the present rather than leafing through the past.

"Make him leave." Her eyes did not waver, even as her voice did. "They _will_ finish this, and you can't be here when that happens." A single tear fell from each of Brave's eyes even as she remained strong-faced when staring down her own demise. Starfire fought against her own tears as she took this in. This was a personal request, something Raven rarely made, and it was not something she ever did lightly. "So you _make_ him leave."

Starfire gave a grim nod to inform her friend that she would do as she had been asked. The relief that washed over Brave's face, the relief that washed over Raven's face, made her want to scream in anger and frustration and anguish. But she kept it inside, feeling her tears on the brim of falling. She did not let them, kept them at bay to appear strong for her friend. She would not strengthen her ideal that there was no way out of this because battle truly was unpredictable. There was a possibility, if painstakingly slim, that she would make it out.

Only when she had turned away did Starfire allow her tears to fall, and she ran after Beast Boy.

Watching her go, Brave let out a shaky breath of relief before turning to face the oncoming storm, her fists clenching to activate her wrist blades with a 'shwk'. She only said one thing as the first Ophythian thundered onto the bridge to join her, snarling and weapons held aloft to draw blood. She spoke three words before charging into a battle that would, in all likelihood, be her last.

"Give 'em hell."

* * *

_A.N.:_

_To Guest: Thanks! I hope you continue to enjoy!_

_To Shadowmeld13: It's actually quite amusing to me to look back and see how terrible my writing was in the beginning. It is, however, why I started writing fanfictions: to improve my writing. I hope you enjoyed this chapter._

_To: crazedduke: About 150,000 words, this story is, and it's not quite done yet._

_To Mia222: There is so much more danger to behold, you have no idea. Mwahahahaa!_

_To NeverEndingWriters: Unfortunately, this is not the biggest falling action. And killing Zippy was sooo hard for me to do. I loved that little guy!_

_To BartWLewis: Thanks! Hopefully the ending I have planned will be worthy._

_To Black Labyrinth07: Oh, don't worry, friend. I have this pathological need to complete any publication I begin, so this will be completed. The sequel will tie in directly to this, as will be evident once I post the final chapter of Snake Hunt. There will be three more chapters here, with the final being the lengthiest of them all._

_Thank you to everyone who has read this story and supported me._


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